martianchess
Much like its namesake, Martian Chess is a game of capturing pieces. Like Chess, Martian Chess is turn based, and played on a chessboard. In both games, players move and capture individual pieces, and each type of piece has distinct moving rules.
However, Martian Chess differs from Chess in critical ways:
- Piece ownership is determined not by color but by location.
- Instead of capturing a specific piece, winning is determined by points, making it possible to force the end of the game and still win with no pieces left in that player's control.
LB_NUMBER_OF_PLAYERS: 2
Game duration: 8 mn
Complexity: 1 / 5
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Play martianchess and 1250 other games online.
No download, directly from your web browser.
With your friends and thousands of players from the whole world.
Free.
Rules summary
Gameplay
Territory & Pieces
- Each player gets a 4*4 board and fits them together. This is each player's territory.
- Each player gets 3 pawns (one dot), 3 drones (two dots) and 3 queens (three dots) and places them in their territory. Colours don't matter.
Movement & Capture
- On your turn, move a piece in your territory. If you move onto an opponent's piece, you capture it.
- Pawns: Can move one space diagonally.
- Drones: Can move up to two spaces orthogonally (left or right but not diagonally).
- Queens: Can move any number of spaces in any direction.
Merging Pieces
- You can merge a drone and a pawn to a queen if you have no queens, and merge two pawns to a drone if you have no drones.
2-Player Rule
- In a 2-player game, your opponent may not “reject” your move; if one player moves a piece across the canal, the other can’t move it back to the same square it came from.
End of the Game
- The game ends when a territory is empty.
- Scoring: Each player scores 1 point for a dot on a piece they capture. The player with the most points wins.
- Tie-breaker: If there is a tie, the player who makes the move causing the game to end is the winner, regardless of points.