Atomic chess

How Atomic chess is played

Atomic chess is chess with explosive captures. The pieces move as you know them; what changes is what a capture does.

The explosion

Every capture is an explosion on the square where it happens. The captured piece, the piece that captured and every piece on the eight squares around it leave the board, of both colours. Pawns are the exception: a pawn goes only when it captures or is captured itself. En passant explodes around the square the capturing pawn lands on.

Kings

A king never captures: it would explode along with its victim. No capture may explode your own king either, so you cannot capture on a square next to it. Kings may stand next to each other; then neither can be checked, since any capture next to one king would blow up the other as well.

Check

Check works as in chess and is answered in the usual ways, and also by blowing up the checking piece or by moving your king next to the opposing one. Watch the pieces next to your king: if your opponent can capture one of them, the explosion reaches your king.

Winning

You win by exploding the opposing king with a capture next to it, even while your own king is in check. An ordinary checkmate wins too. Since a king cannot capture, a queen right next to it is often mate.

Draws

Stalemate, the same position three times, fifty moves each without a capture or a pawn move, and positions where neither side can win any more are draws.

More games

Chess and variants

• Chess · Classic chess or Chess960 with a shuffled back rank, against a bot.
• Chess960 · Fischer random chess: the back rank starts in one of 960 setups.
• Antichess · Losing chess: give away all your pieces, captures are compulsory.
• Crazyhouse · Captured pieces change sides and can be dropped back onto the board.
• Duck chess · After every move you move the duck, which blocks everyone. No check.
• Fog of War · You only see where your pieces can move. Capture the king to win.
• Friendly Chess · Nothing is captured: pieces unite and set off chain reactions.

The chess family

• Chaturanga · India’s ancient chess, the root of the family: take the king to win.
• Shatranj · The medieval ancestor of chess, with a weak ferz and a jumping alfil.
• Makruk · Thai chess: a slow, strategic game with a counting rule.
• Ouk Chatrang · Cambodian chess: Makruk with a leap for the king and the met.
• Sittuyin · Burmese chess: set up your pieces, then promote on the diagonals.
• Xiangqi · Chinese chess: a river, palaces and a cannon that jumps to capture.
• Janggi · Korean chess: no river, palace diagonals and a cannon that always jumps.
• Shogi · Japanese chess: captured pieces return to the board on your side.
• Minishogi · Shogi on a 5 × 5 board: six pieces a side, short and sharp games.

More players

• Chaturaji · India’s four-handed chess: kings can be captured, captures score.
• Four Seasons Chess · Alfonso X’s chess for four from 1283: four seasons, the last king wins.
• Three-player chess · Three armies on a hexagonal board: you against two bots.
• Four-player chess · Four armies on a cross-shaped board: in teams or all against all.
• Eight-player chess · Eight armies on a board of 516 squares: all against all, in pairs or four against four.