CorrLinks Chess
Play correspondence chess with someone in federal prison.
What it is
CorrLinks Chess is a free web app for playing chess by mail with an incarcerated pen pal through CorrLinks, the Federal Bureau of Prisons messaging system. It generates plain-text chess boards and move notation that fit within CorrLinks' 13,000-character limit — no images, no attachments, no links required.
How it works
- Sign in with your Google account.
- Make your move on an interactive chessboard.
- Generate a plain-text message and paste it into a CorrLinks reply.
- Paste your pen pal's reply back into the app to apply their move and continue the game.
Why use it
The app validates every move against full chess rules (castling, en passant, promotion), tracks game state across messages, detects when game state diverges between players, and includes Stockfish-powered analysis. It's free to use and built specifically for the constraints of CorrLinks correspondence.