Shutdown Chess is a functional online chess game that simulates the longest government shutdown in U.S. history, during which 800,000 federal employees were furloughed or forced to work without pay for 35 days because President Trump refused to consider a spending bill that did not include $5.7 billion for a border wall; many of them reported feeling like pawns in a political chess game. Shutdown Chess imagines the shutdown negotiations as a giant game of outdoor chess played by our two political parties on the White House South Lawn, which faces the Oval Office.
Shutdown Chess was inspired by giant outdoor chess sets, such as the one picture here.
