What this site is

TheShortListAu is a small collection of classic games — chess, chess puzzles, 2048 and Sudoku — that run on this website, in your browser. There are no accounts, nothing to buy and nothing hidden behind a sign-up. The games are here to be played, and that is all they are meant for.

Four Classics, Played Right Here

Chess, chess puzzles, 2048 and Sudoku — all running on TheShortListAu, in the browser you are already using. Nothing to install, no account.

Chess Strategy · the classic
Chess puzzles Practice · solo
2048 Numbers · solo
Sudoku Logic · solo

From this page to a game in a few seconds

There is no process to learn. This is what happens when you tap a game.

Choose a game

Each card says how many people play and what kind of game it is. Chess for a proper sit-down, puzzles or 2048 when you have five minutes.

The board opens on this site

No new tab, no other website. The game loads on this page with the same look as everything else here, and works with a mouse, a keyboard or your thumb.

Play, then start again or come back later

When a game ends you can start a new one straight away. 2048 and Sudoku keep your current grid in your browser, so a break does not cost you the game.

How a game gets on this page

A short list is only useful if someone keeps it honest. These are the tests every game here has passed.

TheShortListAu is built around one idea: playing something good should not cost anything or take ten minutes to set up. Open a game, play it, and stop whenever you feel like it.

TheShortListAu

A proper classic with published rules

Chess, Sudoku, 2048: games that have been played by millions and need no explanation. Nothing here is a demo or a one-off novelty.

Runs on this website, right away

Every game is hosted here and opens in the page you are on. If a game needed a download, a plug-in or a sign-up before the first move, it would not be on the list.

Built on open, well-kept foundations

The games are built on established open-source components and a public collection of puzzle positions, and we check them ourselves. Anything that stops working properly comes off the list.

The same on every screen

Phone, tablet or laptop, it is the same site and the same games. Tap a piece and then its square, swipe the 2048 board, tap a Sudoku cell and then a digit.

Made for people who just want to play

The list stays short, the games stay free, and nothing on this site follows you afterwards.

Things people ask us

Mostly about chess, about what a browser needs, and about what we keep.

No. The gentle computer level is meant for beginners, the board only allows legal moves, and you can take a move back whenever you like. The puzzles start at a level where the answer is usually a single check or capture.

No. Every game runs in the browser you already have open — there is no app, no plug-in and no download at any point.

Scroll to the games, tap the one you want, and the board opens right here on this site. Chess starts against the computer at once; the puzzles play the opponent’s move and wait for yours.

No. TheShortListAu has no sign-up at all. 2048 and Sudoku remember your current grid in your own browser, and that is the only thing stored anywhere.

Yes. In chess, choose “A friend, same screen” and pass the phone or the mouse back and forth. The other three are solo games.

Yes. All four games adapt to a small screen and take touch input: tap a piece and then its square, swipe the 2048 board, tap a Sudoku cell and then a digit.

The first is a full game from the opening move. The second shows one position from a real game and asks you to find the best continuation — the quicker way to practise tactics when you have five minutes rather than thirty.

They run on this website. Chess uses an open-source rules library and engine, the puzzles come from a public collection of positions from real games, and 2048 is the original open-source game. Everything loads from theshortlistau.com; no other site is involved when you play.

Know a game that belongs here?

If there is a classic you would like to see on this page — or if something has stopped working — write to us. The list stays short, but it is not closed.