The Game Census
Zen Chess: Mate in Two cover art

Zen Chess: Mate in Two

Minimol Games · 2019-04-30

Steam

CasualStrategy

Modes: Single player

Releases: Apr 30, 2019 (PC (Microsoft Windows)), Apr 30, 2019 (Mac)

Zen Chess: Mate in Two is a minimalist chess puzzle game. Solve mate-in-two problems in a beautifully designed chess board.

85%
positive of 128 reviews
Very Positive
steam's rating (official)
0–20,000
owners (SteamSpy est.)
60/100
IGDB user rating (1 ratings)
pending
deck/linux tier (ProtonDB)
Verified
Steam Deck (Valve)
SteamOS: Playable
$0.99
steam price (US)

Health check

Quiet
  • · 13 reviews in the last 8 weeks (~2/week).
  • · Review velocity up 63% vs the prior 8 weeks.
  • · Top 28% of 27,792 Casual games in the census by review count.
Estimated sales: 3.2k–7.7k copies

Review-multiple estimate from 128 total reviews — how this is computed.

Current store prices

lowest across shops (ITAD)$0.99

Deal snapshots via CheapShark, refreshed daily.

All-time low: $0.44 at Epic Game Store (2025-12-11) · bundled 4×via IsThereAnyDeal

12-month high $0.99 · on sale 8 of 15 observed days (census price snapshots)

Review momentum

PositiveNegative
4420192026Week of 2019-04-01: 2 positiveWeek of 2019-05-01: 4 positiveWeek of 2019-05-01: 3 negativeWeek of 2019-06-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2019-07-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2019-08-01: 2 positiveWeek of 2019-10-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2019-11-01: 3 positiveWeek of 2019-11-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2019-12-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2020-01-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2020-03-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2020-04-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2020-05-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2020-05-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2020-06-01: 2 positiveWeek of 2020-08-01: 2 positiveWeek of 2020-08-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2020-10-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2020-11-01: 2 positiveWeek of 2020-12-01: 2 positiveWeek of 2021-01-01: 3 positiveWeek of 2021-03-01: 4 positiveWeek of 2021-04-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2021-05-01: 3 positiveWeek of 2021-07-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2021-10-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2021-11-01: 2 positiveWeek of 2021-12-01: 3 positiveWeek of 2021-12-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2022-04-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2022-04-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2022-05-01: 2 positiveWeek of 2022-07-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2022-08-01: 2 positiveWeek of 2022-10-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2023-01-01: 2 positiveWeek of 2023-02-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2023-03-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2023-08-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2023-10-01: 2 positiveWeek of 2023-11-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2023-12-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2023-12-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2024-01-01: 2 positiveWeek of 2024-01-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2024-02-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2024-03-01: 2 positiveWeek of 2024-04-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2024-04-01: 2 negativeWeek of 2024-05-01: 2 positiveWeek of 2024-06-01: 2 positiveWeek of 2024-07-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2024-09-01: 2 positiveWeek of 2024-10-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2024-11-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2025-02-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2025-07-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2025-09-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2025-09-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2025-10-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2025-11-01: 2 positiveWeek of 2026-01-01: 2 positiveWeek of 2026-02-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2026-03-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2026-06-01: 2 positiveWeek of 2026-07-01: 3 positiveWeek of 2026-08-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2026-09-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2026-09-01: 1 negative
Weekly review counts (Steam review histogram). Positive above the line, negative below.

Price history

$0.99$0.442019-05-012026-10-082019-05-01 — best price $0.792019-08-05 — best price $0.592019-10-28 — best price $0.592019-11-26 — best price $0.592020-01-06 — best price $0.592020-02-24 — best price $0.692020-06-08 — best price $0.592020-07-27 — best price $0.592020-10-21 — best price $0.592020-11-09 — best price $0.592020-12-22 — best price $0.592021-02-11 — best price $0.592021-04-26 — best price $0.592021-07-08 — best price $0.992021-10-25 — best price $0.992021-12-01 — best price $0.992022-01-05 — best price $0.992022-02-21 — best price $0.992022-07-07 — best price $0.592022-10-17 — best price $0.592022-12-22 — best price $0.492023-03-16 — best price $0.792023-05-29 — best price $0.492023-10-02 — best price $0.992023-11-28 — best price $0.992024-01-29 — best price $0.992024-03-21 — best price $0.992024-06-03 — best price $0.992024-08-15 — best price $0.842024-09-30 — best price $0.992024-11-11 — best price $0.992024-12-20 — best price $0.792025-01-13 — best price $0.992025-07-10 — best price $0.992025-09-08 — best price $0.992025-11-10 — best price $0.992026-01-08 — best price $0.992026-04-14 — best price $0.492026-10-01 — best price $0.692026-10-08 — best price $0.99
Lowest recorded price across tracked stores, per day (census snapshots).

Completion

15
achievements tracked
61.9%
earned "The Hero of Hastings"
31.4%
median achievement earned by

Global achievement rates from Steam.

Details

WindowsmacOSSingle-playerSteam AchievementsFamily Sharing

29 supported languages: English, French, Italian, German, Spanish - Spain, Arabic, Bulgarian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, Greek…

Player tags

ChessLogicCasualPuzzleAbstractColorfulRelaxingStrategyTabletopEducation

Census log

Computed from census-recorded observations only — dates are observation dates.

Players also track

Between Two Castles - Digital EditionSEIKEN-MANIFESTIA

Similarity via IGDB.

Official site ↗