Martian chess

Last updated
Martian chess
Designers Andrew Looney
Publishers Looney Labs
Publication1999;24 years ago (1999)
Years active1999–present
Genres Tabletop Abstract strategy
Systems Icehouse
Players2 or 4
Skills Strategy, tactics
Materials required Icehouse pieces
chessboard
Released in
Website Official website

Martian Chess is an abstract strategy game for two or four players invented by Andrew Looney in 1999. [1] It is played with Icehouse pyramids on a chessboard. [2] To play with a number of players other than two or four, a non-Euclidean surface can be tiled to produce a board of the required size, allowing up to six players.

Contents

In his review in Abstract Games Magazine, Kerry Handscomb stated: "The first thing to note about Martian Chess is that it is not a chess-type game at all. Instead, the objective is to accumulate points by capturing pieces." "Martian Chess is [...] an original game with novel tactics and strategy." [3] Looney in 1996 had invented Monochrome Chess, a similar two player game that uses regular chess pieces where the half of the board determined who controlled a piece. While the king is not royal, that piece and rook can castle. [4]

History

Martian Chess was one of four games in the Icehouse: The Martian Chess Set [2] released by Looney Labs in 1999. [1] The set was Looney Labs's first Icehouse release and first to showcase its potential as a game system. The other three games were IceTowers, IceTraders and Zarcana. [2] In 2001, Icehouse: The Martian Chess Set won the Origins Award for Best Abstract Board Game of 2000. [5] The rules to the game were reissued in 3HOUSE booklet in 2007, [6] [7] [ better source needed ] again by 2013 in Pyramid Primer #1 [8] [9] and in 2016 as a part of Pyramid Arcade boxed set. [10]

Rules

Four-player and two-player starting setups Martian chess startpos.png
Four-player and two-player starting setups

Initial setup

Each player starts with nine pieces: three small (pawns), three medium (drones), and three large (queens). The color of the pieces is irrelevant to the gameplay. [1] A mix of colors is recommended.

Players initially place their pieces in the corners of the board as shown. In a two-player game, only a half-board is used. [11] The players decide who moves first. Play turns alternate, and pass to the left after each move.

Movement and capturing

The red lines in the diagrams indicate notional canals which divide the board into territories, or quadrant. At any given time a player controls only those pieces that are in his or her territory. [1]

The pieces move as follows:

As in chess, a square may contain no more than one piece, and a piece is captured when an enemy piece lands on the square it occupies. The capturing player removes the piece and puts it aside for later scoring.

In the two-player game, a player may not immediately reverse an opponent's last move (i.e. may not move the piece across the canal back to its departure square, on the next turn). [4]

End of game and scoring

The game ends when one player runs out of pieces (i.e., their territory becomes empty). Players then compute their scores by adding up the point values of the pieces they captured: queen = 3, drone = 2, pawn = 1. [1] The player or team with the highest total wins the game. [3]

In the four-player game, the players form two teams, with teammates in opposite corners. Teammates play for a combined score. Aside from strategic differences, play is unaffected; it is legal (and sometimes good strategy) to capture your teammate's pieces.

Strategy

Capturing with a queen often allows the opponent to immediately recapture, leading to a back-and-forth battle until one player runs out of pieces in the line(s) of capture. This is more common in two-player games, since other players may interfere in the four-player version. The net point difference is usually minor with two players, but can give the players involved a significant lead over the others in a four-player game.

Moving a pawn or drone into enemy territory can be a good move for several reasons:

See also

Related Research Articles

Avalanche chess is a chess variant designed by Ralph Betza in 1977. After moving one of their own pieces, a player must move one of the opponent's pawns forward one square.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Icehouse pieces</span> Pyramid shaped gaming pieces

Icehouse pieces, or Icehouse Pyramids, Treehouse pieces, Treehouse Pyramids and officially Looney Pyramids, are nestable and stackable pyramid-shaped gaming pieces and a game system. The game system was invented by Andrew Looney and John Cooper in 1987, originally for use in the game of Icehouse.

Grand Chess is a large-board chess variant invented by Dutch games designer Christian Freeling in 1984. It is played on a 10×10 board, with each side having two additional pawns and two new pieces: the marshal and the cardinal.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sittuyin</span> Burmese chess variant

Sittuyin, also known as Burmese chess, is a strategy board game created in Myanmar. It is a direct offspring of the Indian game of chaturanga, which arrived in Myanmar in the 8th century thus it is part of the same family of games such as chess, and shogi. Sit is the modern Burmese word for "army" or "war"; the word sittuyin can be translated as "representation of the four characteristics of army"—chariot, elephant, cavalry and infantry.

Extinction chess is a chess variant invented by R. Wayne Schmittberger, editor of Games magazine, in 1985. Instead of checkmate as the winning condition, the object of the game is the elimination of all of a particular type of piece of the opponent. In other words, the objective is any of the following:

Penultima is a game of inductive logic, played on a chess board. It was invented by Michael Greene and Adam Chalcraft in Cambridge in 1994. The game is derived from the chess variant Ultima, and played with a standard chess board and pieces, each piece having different movement and capture rules from standard chess. In a manner similar to the game Mao, which was a popular game in Cambridge at that time, the rules for each piece vary from game to game, and are initially kept secret from the players. Penultima is similar in style to Eleusis, Zendo and Mao. The name of the game is a pun on "penultimate", and "Ultima", the name of a different chess variant with all pieces replaced by fairy pieces with their own mechanics.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Senterej</span>

Senterej, also known as Ethiopian chess, is a regional chess variant, the form of chess traditionally played in Ethiopia and Eritrea. It was the last popular survival of shatranj. According to Richard Pankhurst, the game became extinct sometime after the Italian invasion of Ethiopia in the 1930s. A distinctive feature of Senterej is the opening phase – players make as many moves as they like without regard for how many moves the opponent has made; this continues until the first capture is made. Memorization of opening lines is therefore not a feature of the game.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Millennium 3D chess</span> Three-dimensional chess variant

Millennium 3D chess is a three-dimensional chess variant created by William L. d'Agostino in 2001. It employs three vertically stacked 8×8 boards, with each player controlling a standard set of chess pieces. The inventor describes his objective as "extending the traditional chess game into a multilevel environment without distorting the basic game."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2000 A.D. (chess variant)</span> Chess variant

2000 A.D. is a chess variant created by V. R. Parton which employs fairy chess pieces on a 10×10 board. Parton published the variant in his 1972 monograph My Game for 2000 A.D. and After.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wildebeest chess</span>

Wildebeest chess is a chess variant created by R. Wayne Schmittberger in 1987. The Wildebeest board is 11×10 squares. Besides the standard chess pieces, each side has two camels and one "wildebeest" - a piece which may move as either a camel or a knight.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dragonfly (chess variant)</span> Chess variant played on a 7×7 board

Dragonfly is a chess variant invented by Christian Freeling in 1983. There are no queens, and a captured bishop, knight, or rook becomes the property of the capturer, who may play it as their own on a turn to any open square. The board is 7×7 squares, or alternatively a 61-cell hexagon with two additional pawns per side.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rhombic chess</span> Chess variant

Rhombic chess is a chess variant for two players created by Tony Paletta in 1980. The gameboard has an overall hexagonal shape and comprises 72 rhombi in three alternating colors. Each player commands a full set of standard chess pieces.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chesquerque</span> Variant of chess

Chesquerque is a chess variant invented by George R. Dekle Sr. in 1986. The game is played on a board composed of four Alquerque boards combined into a square. Like Alquerque, pieces are positioned on points of intersection and make their moves along marked lines ; as such, the board comprises a 9×9 grid with 81 positions (points) that pieces can move to.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Three-man chess</span> Chess variant intended for three players and played on a hexagonal board

Three-man chess is a chess variant for three players invented by George R. Dekle Sr. in 1984. The game is played on a hexagonal board comprising 96 quadrilateral cells. Each player controls a standard army of chess pieces.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stratomic</span> Chess variant involving nuclear missiles

Stratomic is a chess variant invented by Robert Montay-Marsais in 1972. The game is played on a 10×10 board with all the standard chess pieces present, and in addition, two nuclea pieces and two extra pawns per side. The game brings the concept of modern warfare weaponry to chess.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Apocalypse (chess variant)</span>

Apocalypse is a chess variant invented by C. S. Elliott in 1976. Each player starts with two horsemen and five footmen on a 5×5 board. The two sides make their moves simultaneously.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Congo (chess variant)</span> Chess variant

Congo is a chess variant invented by Demian Freeling in 1982 when he was nearly 8 years old. His father encouraged him to design a variant using a 7×7 gameboard. Demian was already familiar with chess and xiangqi, and the result blends some features from both. Congo became the second-most popular chess variant at the Fanaat games club in Enschede, the Netherlands.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hostage chess</span> Chess variant

Hostage chess is a chess variant invented by John A. Leslie in 1997. Captured pieces are not eliminated from the game but can reenter active play through drops, similar to shogi. Unlike shogi, the piece a player may drop is one of their own pieces previously captured by the opponent. In exchange, the player returns a previously captured enemy piece which the opponent may drop on a future turn. This is the characteristic feature of the game.

Dynamo chess is a chess variant invented by chess problemists Hans Klüver and Peter Kahl in 1968. The invention was inspired by the closely related variant push chess, invented by Fred Galvin in 1967. The pieces, board, and starting position of Dynamo chess are the same as in orthodox chess, but captures are eliminated and enemy pieces are instead "pushed" or "pulled" off the board. On any given move, a player can make a standard move as in orthodox chess, or execute a "push move" or a "pull move". A move that is either a push move or a pull move is called a "dynamo move".

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 Pritchard, D. B. (2007). "Martian Chess". In Beasley, John (ed.). The Classified Encyclopedia of Chess Variants (PDF). John Beasley. p. 353. ISBN   978-0-9555168-0-1.
  2. 1 2 3 West, Susan. "The Looney Labs Experiment". GAMES. October 2005. Retrieved June 16, 2015.
  3. 1 2 Handscomb, Kerry (Spring 2003). Handscomb, Kerry (ed.). "Martian Chess". Game and Book Reviews. Abstract Games. No. 13. Carpe Diem Publishing. p. 5. ISSN   1492-0492. OCLC   44155104.
  4. 1 2 Pritchard, D. B. (2007). "Monochrome Chess". In Beasley, John (ed.). The Classified Encyclopedia of Chess Variants (PDF). John Beasley. p. 304. ISBN   978-0-9555168-0-1.
  5. ↑ Jackson, Micah (July 7, 2001). "Origins Awards Announced: Pyramid Wins Best Magazine". Pyramid Magazine. Steve Jackson Games. Retrieved June 8, 2015.
  6. ↑ "Out Of Print (OOP) Pyramid Products". Wunderland. Looney Labs. Retrieved June 10, 2015.
  7. ↑ "3HOUSE". Wunderland.com. Looney Labs. Retrieved June 10, 2015.
  8. ↑ "Guide to Looney Pyramids". looneylabs.com. Looney Labs. Retrieved May 25, 2017.
  9. ↑ Liu, Jonathan H. (January 3, 2013). "Looney Pyramids Are Back". Wired. Condé Nast. Geek Dad. Archived from the original on October 22, 2014. Retrieved June 8, 2015. Alt URL
  10. ↑ Liu, Jonathan H. (October 18, 2016). "Reaping the Rewards: Looney Labs' 'Pyramid Arcade'". GeekDad. Retrieved May 25, 2017.
  11. ↑ Pritchard, David (2002). Byway, Paul V. (ed.). "Looney Variants" (PDF). Variant Chess. British Chess Variants Society. 5 (39): 109. ISSN   0958-8248.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.