How Chessskins works.

Chessskins works on Chess.com in desktop Chrome. It does not run in the Chess.com mobile apps or on Lichess.

A board is the 8 × 8 playing surface. A piece set contains all twelve images: six white and six black. A complete chess set pairs a board with pieces. You can mix approved boards and pieces in your personal loadout without publishing another catalog entry.

Static boards, piece sets, uploads and standard extension styles are free. Premium unlocks animated boards and pieces. Preview animations freely; applying and syncing them requires Premium. Existing subscriptions include Premium on their current billing terms.

Sign in, choose a board and pieces in Loadout, then Apply changes. After installing or updating Chessskins, refresh Chess.com tabs that were already open. In the extension, choose Sign in and approve Connect extension on the website with the same account. Open your Chess.com board and click Sync. Changes in the editor are only a preview until you apply them. You have one active loadout; Saved is a list of favorites, not extra loadouts.

A Chessskins account is required to apply and sync your loadout. Static styles are free, and installing the extension does not start a subscription. Premium is required for animated boards and pieces. Verify your email if prompted; a verified email is required to start a trial or paid subscription. If registration is temporarily restricted, contact Support for access. Existing accounts can still sign in.

Open My Account → My creations. Choose Board only, Pieces only, or Set. Board only requires an uploaded custom board. Pieces only requires all twelve piece images. A Set requires all twelve uploaded pieces plus either an uploaded board or the built-in two-color board palette. You cannot publish combinations made from other catalog items.

Use PNG, WebP or SVG, PNG/WebP up to 6 MB; SVG under 500 KB. Animated files and unsafe SVG content are rejected. Boards must be square, viewed from above, and show a complete 8 × 8 board without pieces, frames, margins or perspective. The grid must fill the image edge to edge. The card preview is automatically cropped from the top-left 2 × 2 squares; it does not use AI or infer a grid from arbitrary pictures. Pieces should have transparent backgrounds and consistent proportions. Uploaded files are checked and normalized before review.

Use wk, wq, wr, wb, wn, wp for white king, queen, rook, bishop, knight and pawn; use bk, bq, br, bb, bn, bp for black. Add .png, .webp or .svg. For example: wn.png. Long names such as white_knight.svg also work. Name an uploaded board board.png (or board.webp / board.svg). Unknown names and duplicate slots are reported; assign or replace them explicitly in the individual slots.

Only upload artwork you own or have the right to upload, and confirm that Chessskins may host and display it. Being visible online does not make artwork free to reuse. The creator form has one ownership/permission checkbox. Platform artwork and third-party imports are handled separately, with their required source and license records retained.

It saves your work privately, including incomplete uploads. It does not publish or submit anything. You can return to a draft from My Account → My creations. Save the latest changes, add all required files and confirm your rights before submitting.

Your status becomes Pending Review. An administrator checks the artwork, files, presentation, ownership confirmation and overall quality. Pending artwork is not publicly visible or usable by anyone, including its creator. You and the review team can inspect it privately in the submission workflow.

Review usually takes under 24 hours. Some submissions take longer if files, rights or quality need closer inspection. This is an estimate, not a guaranteed deadline. Check the submission status in My Account.

Approval publishes the board, the pieces, and the complete set together as three catalog entries. They stay linked to the same submission. A board-only or pieces-only submission creates one entry. No entry becomes public before approval.

Withdraw a pending submission to edit it. If the reviewer requests changes, read their feedback, update and save the draft, then submit it again. Changes to approved artwork are also reviewed. Submitting an update temporarily removes the existing public entries until approval; saving a draft alone does not change the approved version.

Chessskins Classics brings together our original designs and animated favorites. Seasonal Collection features holiday and seasonal looks, including Gingerbread, Spooky and Pumpkin Parade. Stained Collection pairs splashed and fractured pieces in distinct colorways, each with its own matching board. Military Collection pairs Death Square, its signature armed chess set, with ten armies inspired by different eras. Imported Collection contains third-party artwork with reviewed reuse rights and attribution. Community Collection contains player artwork approved by administrators. Imported artists are credited; they are not represented as registered community accounts. Collection membership does not change access: static styles remain free, and animated styles require Premium to apply and sync.

Liked counts accounts that saved an item. Loadouts counts accounts with the item currently selected, not people online or games being played. For original platform collections, saved counts are shared across the collection and labelled accordingly.