Pick. Learn. Play.
The whole product in four steps. Nothing here is hidden behind a signup — if a step surprises you later, that is our fault, not yours.
Pick a game.
Every game on DUELS is one against one and decided entirely by the two people playing it. The games page shows what is running right now.
Learn it before it counts.
The first time you open a game you play a short demo of it. It teaches the rules by having you use them, which works better than a page of text explaining them — and it is the same rules, not a simplified version.
You can skip past it after a few seconds if you already know the game. Nothing here costs anything, so nothing is riding on whether you read it.
Play a person.
The match is live and the other side is a human being making decisions at the same moment you are. Both of you commit, both commitments are revealed together, and the position moves. Nothing about the outcome is generated for either of you.
One of you wins.
Then it is over. The free side keeps no score — there is no ladder, no rating and nothing accumulating while you are away. You come back because someone sends you a link, not because a number is waiting for you.