War Chess is a basically a chess game with a unusual presentation. All the set pieces for the game are substituted for the character of the High Fantasy setting. Whites are pictured as joined armies of humans and elves, while blacks are mostly represented by the undead forces. The player has an ability to choose from 11 various location for the match to take place. Those include: Forest, Desert, Ice and Lava, Dragon Cave etc. All the environments and pieces are rendered in full 3D with a fully rotatable camera.

For the single playing experience the game provides a difficulty slider to account for gamer's proficiency skill. Additionally War Chess offers a multiplayer mode for two players to battle each other as at one PC so as over the network.

The game obviously takes it inspiration from the Battlechess series, however doesn't provide unique animations for each type of encounter on the chessboard. Each piece has a double set of animations: one for attacking, another for dying. Those do not differ depending on the type of the opposing piece.