Chess is a very complex game that remains unsolved even with our computing power. This means that the perfect strategy has yet to be found. It gets considerably more complicated when you and your opponent can use time travel to send chess pieces back in time and create different parallel worlds. It is not enough to think ahead; you have to think dozens of moves ahead. [When chess pieces are sent into the past to create new timelines in parallel universes, new timelines are created, so that we are continually playing several slightly different games of chess at once.

Naturally, I lost: my opponent checkmated not any of my current reality, but some version of the past, which became the new present. (I had two kings on the chessboard in that particular universe. I thought it was a smart move at the time, sending a king from the future back to the other king's reality. It wasn't.)

How does it work? Unfortunately, I don't yet understand all of it in the present, but the following brief trailer should give you a little taste.

Did it help? Read this Steam review by TheSpookiestUser here:

"I was online playing a game with a human opponent, and at one point they sent a queen back in time from one of the 10 timelines currently in play, and my past five kings in tow at once. I stalled by sending one of my pieces further back in time, and my opponent sent one of his queens back to the point where the game started, trying to beat me before I reached that point. I was able to save the game by maneuvering one of my bishops in the second divergent timeline into a position to capture another queen in the present once I returned to that point in time (eventually I checkmate my opponent's king five turns in the past and win)."

If you didn't get the reference, wait a few minutes to get it into your head, or better yet, go back in time a few minutes and read it, which may help when you catch up with another version of yourself in the present. Fortunately, there are guides to help you get started.