Hey! Just quickly because I have hopped into a queue and haven’t matched with anyone sadly. Here are my thoughts:

Regarding itch page

Take the web game version off your itch if it doesn’t work on itch yet - it’s confusing. I started looking at debugging to help figure out what was wrong to maybe help but then read the note about “doesn’t work on itch”. Some players (me…) just run for the Play button XD

Regarding design

The idea in itself is a simple twist with huge consequences and modifying the flow of the game! That’s pretty cool! By doing this you will have introduced an element of luck to a game purely around skill. That effect can make it lighten the blow when you lose.

I read that you’re planning to have the cards not be completely random but instead drawn from a set deck. I think this is a wicked directions as it allows people to guess the likelihood of a card coming up. ( For instance, the deck composes of 1x queen, 1x king, 2x bishop, 2x knight + a few jokers. If I drew the king, bishops and knights I would know the next card is either the king or the jokers ).

Something to consider: when you run out of cards in the deck, what happens? Reshuffle the cards? To go further on this maybe introduce additional jokers to each hand as the hands run out, because pawns will start disappearing.

Players may also need to burn cards they don’t have the piece of anymore (i.e. running out of pawns) - how will that be handed? Lose a turn? It would make eliminating pawns a v. strong strategy if so because players will have to mill their cards constantly!

The last thing is: some games like this can have moments where you “have great RNG” or “bad luck”… is there a way to emphasise these moments? Maybe looking at AutoChess games will provide some inspiration.

An idea if you want to speed up the games: maybe introduce a “Double Turn” card added to the deck when you lose a piece. This can give a losing player a way to catch up but also cause games to cascade a little faster, if you want.

In closing, wicked idea!! Get exploring!

And make vs computer because I’ve waited in the queue and it was not possible to enjoy this idea :(

The idea does sound interesting, but I think there is quite a lot of work in front of you. Few small tips / suggestions to get you started:

1) Implement single-player mode ASAP. Even if the opponent 'AI' moves randomly or just does nothing. Not only will it allow curious potential players like me to see the game board instead of only waiting screen, it will also help with debugging, simplifying your run/test/fix cycle.
2)  If you want to publish your github repo (which is a good idea IMHO), add direct link to it, and maybe take a moment to do a little cleanup, at least removing default Vue's readme files. I was confused for a second when trying to look at your source. Also, maybe add a license.
3) Consider view/model separation right from the start. It is ok to do a quick prototype like you did, but intertwined UI and game logic will quickly become a hindrance, especially for a multiplayer game.

Anyway, good luck with development!

Thanks, with addition of AI I was able to test the game.

The concept is indeed very promising, and has great potential. However, I see a lots of obstacles too

1) Chess is very well known and deeply understood game, and adding this much randomness to it might be unpleasant to some people, especially since the randomness is of 'negative' type. So maybe consider adding cards which give pieces additional powers instead of paralyzing every piece until you have a card for it. That is very IMHO and maybe I am wrong, but something you might think of.

2) Since people have very high expectations of AI for chess, coding reasonably strong AI may be difficult. Consider playing on non-standard boards / positions instead, i.e.. create "levels" for single-player.

3) Depending on how far you want to get away from traditional chess rules, I can suggest dozens of different cards and ideas, but maybe you wish to keep game as minimal as possible -- it's up to you.

4) Consider displaying opponent's cards. In my opinion, hiding them reduces the strategy to practically zero, since opponent move of always random, regardless of AI of human.

5) Regarding current UI -- consider highlighting enabed/disabled pieces.