A draft-first take on chess
Chess Ultimate keeps the board, the King and the goal of taking down your opponent's side, but changes how your army gets built. Before the match starts you draft characters from a roster of quirky figures, and each one carries its own ability. That means the shape of your team is decided by your picks rather than by the standard starting line-up, so two matches rarely play out the same way. The game runs in 3D from a top-down view with a colorful, cartoon look, and it is turn-based, so every move is a deliberate choice.
Playing it with your group
The Steam features list Online PvP, which is the way two people from your group can face each other directly. One of you drafts a team, the other drafts theirs, and the match unfolds move by move. Since it is turn-based, you can talk through the game as it goes, second-guess each other's picks, and watch the abilities come into play without anyone needing to keep up with real-time action. The tags also list Multiplayer and PvP alongside Singleplayer, so there is a solo mode to practice in when the rest of the group is offline.
Before you sit down
Chess Ultimate is a reimagining of chess rather than a straight copy, so the abilities on your drafted characters are the main thing to learn. Expect the draft itself to matter as much as the moves that follow: picking the right mix of characters sets up the strategies you can run during the match. It is listed as Free to Play, and the tags include Turn-Based Tactics, Turn-Based Strategy, Tabletop and Fantasy, which fits the drafting and ability-driven play. If someone in your group knows classic chess, they will recognize the board and the objective, but the character abilities are where the game asks you to rethink your habits.