Changelog

What changed in each beta build. Online play needs the latest build.

Next build

New visual effects: the edges of the screen now breathe with the game (a red pulse when a royal is attacked, a dark heartbeat against Kage, an amber tick when your clock runs low, a hush in the endgame), big captures, promotions and the winning blow send a ripple through the picture, and every capture shows what it was worth as a number that rises from the square.
The winning capture is now a moment of its own: the world slows, the picture bends outward from the fallen royal, and the screen flares. On High graphics there are soft light shafts and a gentle blur of the far distance.
New setting: Reduce motion and flashes turns off shaking, slow motion, ripples and pulsing, and makes flashes much fainter.

Correspondence games: play a game over days. Pick how many days per move (1 to 14), find an opponent or invite a friend with a code, and play any number of games at once. You do not need to be online: the server keeps the game and its clock, tells you when it is your move, and ends the game on time. Optional email alerts (confirmed with a code) tell you when it is your move or time is running short, only while you are away. Correspondence games are unrated for now.
Every game shows its own number while you play, and Profile has a link-code option to use the same account on another machine.

Ten new music tracks: a theme for the campaign map, the tutorial and puzzles, the online lobby, time pressure, the endgame, the settings screen and Kage, plus a ladder-clear finale and stings for a draw and a new rank.
A live games ticker on every page of the website, a threat overlay on your turn (T), group highlight (G), an in-game updater, and a faster, deeper AI.

The ladder grows to ten opponents: Tomo the shopkeeper, Ren the student, Gen the monk and Akira the champion join the original five, and Kage the shadow waits after Hana. Your campaign stars carry over.
Promotions are an event: the piece rises and spins, then bursts into the promoted piece with light, a screen flash and a chime. Heavy hitters get a bigger version.
16 new sound effects (promotion, draws, resigning, rank-ups, clearing the ladder, win streaks, Kage's entrance, rating changes) and varied move and capture sounds. Spoken lines for the five new opponents.
Three AI-versus-AI games are always running, so there is always more than one game to watch.
English uses inches and American spellings throughout.
Faster move generation (about 1.5 times) and faster move ordering in the AI search.

Five AI opponents always online (Kenji to Hana), skill rooms by rating, challenge mode and fair handicap, and AI-versus-AI games always running.
Website: live games and leaderboard (Live) and a live board you can watch in the browser (Watch).

Visual effects (selection glow, hover glow, danger rings, wood shards, lion slash, fireworks, LIVE badge).
12 achievements, Elo ratings with a leaderboard, the puzzle of the day with a streak, a colorblind palette.
Web piece encyclopedia, how-to-play and changelog pages.

18 new sound effects: camera zoom, spectating, opponents leaving and returning, milestones, tutorial steps, puzzle wins, danger cleared.
Hero section of the website fixed on desktop.

Painted lesson cards in the tutorial; new artwork for the online, watch, statistics and history screens.
The mathematics pages (English and Japanese) with ten figures.

You must accept that public games can be watched and broadcast before using Find a game (enforced by the server).
Twitch and YouTube (24/7) announced as coming soon.

Faster: new Graphics setting (Fast, Balanced, High), labels beyond a distance are not drawn, one shadow pass, automatic downgrade when the frame rate stays low, F3 frame-rate display.

62 more teacher voice lines in English and Japanese.
The camera zooms in a little when you select a piece and eases back after your move (a setting).

Spectate live games and a game statistics panel (S): time, moves, captures, thinking time.
English and Japanese throughout, with a Japanese teacher voice.
Privacy, cookie and terms pages.

Online play requires the latest build; the site and emails say plainly that this is a paid game and the beta is a preview.

First limited beta: 36x36 board, 301 pieces, ladder of five opponents, tutorial, puzzles, encyclopedia, history, online play for macOS, Windows and Linux.