For a five-minute gap

Chess puzzles

One board, one right move to find, and you are usually through it before the kettle boils.
For settling in

Chess

The whole game, start to finish, against the computer or a mate on the same couch.
For a small screen

Sudoku

Pick a cell, pick a number. Made for a phone on the train.
For starting cold

2048

Swipe and let the tiles merge. You will understand it before you finish reading this.

All of them, one card apiece

The classics lead off, with chess and its puzzles up front and the social games bringing up the rear. Four badges appear on every card without exception: players, how long a round runs, difficulty and the player rating. Trim the list with a filter, reorder it if you like, and choose.

12 of 12 games shown

Board

Chess

Proper chess against the engine or a friend, with the computer’s strength set wherever you want it.

1–2 players 20–40 min Hard
4.8 most revisited
Play now
Board

Chess puzzles

One board state lifted straight out of a game somebody actually played. Find the strongest continuation, then load another.

Single-player 1–3 min Medium
4.7 fast training
Play now
Puzzle

2048

Shove matching tiles into each other until the numbers reach 2048. A minute to pick up, an hour to put down.

Single-player 3–5 min Easy
4.6 quickest start
Play now
Puzzle

Sudoku

Place one to nine in every row, column and box without a repeat. Choose from four difficulty levels.

Single-player 10–20 min Medium
4.5 phone-friendly
Play now
Social

Outback Gold

Five reels out in the red dirt, and the session runs as long as you feel like it. Nothing for sale.

Single-player Reels, ~5 min Easy
4.4 most played
Play now
Social

Lucky 7s Classic

One line across three reels, the way it was done decades ago. You will have it figured out in one round.

Single-player Reels, ~5 min Easy
4.3 least to learn
Play now
Social

Reef Riches

Five reels down on the reef and a chest round that adds extra turns. Nothing to buy here either.

Single-player Reels, ~5 min Easy
4.2 top chest round
Play now
Social

Fruit Wheel

Three rings of fruit that turn quickly and suit a phone held in one hand.

Single-player Rings, ~5 min Easy
4.1 thumb-friendly
Play now
On its way
Board

Checkers

Draughts on the usual 8×8 board, with the computer or a friend across from you.

1–2 players 10–20 min Easy
— no rating yet
Still in the works
On its way
Cards

Solitaire

Klondike, the card game that shipped with every office computer for a generation.

Single-player 5–10 min Easy
— no rating yet
Still in the works
On its way
Puzzle

Minesweeper

Uncover the whole field and avoid every mine. Small, medium or large grid.

Single-player 2–10 min Medium
— no rating yet
Still in the works
On its way
Arcade

Tetris

Drop the falling shapes into place before they pile up. Keyboard or touch, both work.

Single-player 3–8 min Medium
— no rating yet
Still in the works

Three steps, nothing more

It hardly deserves the word “process”, but people ask, so we have written it down.

Read the cards

The four badges on every card are players, round length, difficulty and rating. Match them to the time you have: a few spare minutes sends you toward chess puzzles, most of an hour toward a full chess game, a lazy afternoon toward sudoku, and a couple of quick rounds toward the social games.

Hit play

One press and the game is running on AussiePick, inside the tab you already have in front of you. No app store, no plugin prompt, no download folder and no account form stand between you and the first move.

Play, leave, return

We keep nothing that follows you from one visit to the next. Close the tab whenever you have had your fill, and the list will be waiting the next time you feel like a round.

A short list is only worth having if someone keeps an eye on it

One idea sits underneath AussiePick: people go back to the games they grew up playing. So chess and chess puzzles come first, the other classics line up behind them, and not a single one needs a tutorial, an account or any fiddling about before you can begin.

Known games first

Nothing on the list is younger than a few decades. Because you learned the rules long ago, you can skip the instructions and go straight to the board.

Hosted here, played in your browser

Our own servers run every one of these games. A game that would need an install, a login or one particular device does not get a card.

Always open

There is nothing locked away and nothing on sale in any game here, social games among them. You will not be asked to register, either.

The same yardstick on every card

Players, round length, difficulty and rating are assessed the same way for each game, which is what makes putting the cards side by side fair.

Revisited from time to time

Every so often we play through the whole list ourselves. When a game no longer does what its card promises, we either fix it or pull it.

Questions we hear often

The same handful come up again and again: the chess cards, browser requirements, and what exactly a social game is.

Not a thing. Every game on AussiePick is open as you find it, with no subscription and no account standing in the way. Click a card and the game starts.

A light reel-style game you play on your own, just for the fun of it. Same as everything else on the list, it runs in the browser, has nothing for sale and never asks you to sign up.

Knowing which way each piece moves is plenty. The chess game includes an easy computer level to start on, and when you lift a piece the board highlights every square it is allowed to land on.

Chess is the full game and takes as long as a full game takes. A puzzle hands you one position from a real game in which a single line is clearly better than the others. If you want to sharpen up, the puzzles do it in a fraction of the time.

From people who play here: once a round finishes, anyone can leave a rating. The star is the average of all of them, and the short note beside it is whatever players mention most.

Any recent version of Chrome, Firefox, Safari or Edge will run the entire list. The games use ordinary web technology, so there is nothing extra to add to your browser.

You can. Each game adapts to a smaller screen and works with touch. Sudoku and chess are especially comfortable on a mobile.

We are. Every game on this page is hosted on servers AussiePick runs, which is why a single privacy policy and a single set of terms cover all of them.

Reckon a game belongs on this list?

If it is a classic that opens on the spot without an install, let us know. Likewise if a card says something that does not look right.