Chess · Chess puzzles · Sudoku · 2048 · Social games
Chess, chess puzzles, sudoku and 2048, with a few free social games alongside, all running on ThePickAU’s own servers at no cost. Nothing to install, no account. Every card lists players, round length, difficulty and rating, so choosing takes seconds.
Chess, chess puzzles, sudoku and 2048 come first, with a few free social games further along. Each card carries the same four badges: players, length of a round, difficulty and player rating. Narrow the list or reorder it, then pick one.
12 of 12 games shown
Calling this a process is generous, but the question keeps coming up, so here it is in writing.
Our criteria
ThePickAU rests on a single idea: the games people return to are the ones they grew up with. Chess and chess puzzles lead, the remaining classics follow. Not one of them asks for a walkthrough, a login or any setup before the opening move.
Each entry has decades behind it. You already know the rules, so there is no reading to do before the first move.
All of the games run from our own servers. Anything that would demand an install, a login or a particular device stays off the list.
Each game, social games included, costs nothing. No locked content, no registration.
Players, round length, difficulty and rating are judged by the same yardstick across the board, which keeps the comparison honest.
We sit down with every game now and again. If one stops matching what its card says, it is repaired or taken down.
Usually about chess and the puzzles, about what a browser needs, and about the social games.
It is. Each game on ThePickAU is free to play, with no subscription and no account behind it. Open a card and you are playing.
Light reel-style games played solo, purely for fun. Like the rest of the list they cost nothing, run in the browser and never ask you to register.
Knowing how the pieces move is enough. The chess game has a gentle computer level to start against, and while you hold a piece the board marks every square it may legally go to.
Chess starts a whole game, which lasts as long as games do. A puzzle drops you into one position from a real game where a single line clearly beats the alternatives. If practice is the goal, puzzles get you there faster.
Players here can leave a rating once a round is over. The star shows the average, and the short note next to it is the point players bring up most often.
A current release of Chrome, Firefox, Safari or Edge handles the whole list. The games are built with standard web technology, so nothing extra needs installing.
Yes. All of the games resize for a smaller screen and respond to touch. Chess and sudoku in particular feel at home on a phone.
We are. Everything on this page is served from ThePickAU’s own servers, so one privacy policy and one set of terms cover the lot.
If it is a classic, opens straight away and needs no install, tell us about it. The same applies if something on a card looks off.