Martian Chess
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.
Number of players: 2
Game duration: 8 mn
Complexity: 1 / 5
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Play Martian Chess and 1250 other games online.
No download necessary - play 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.