Friendly Chess

How Friendly Chess works

Friendly Chess is played on a chessboard with the usual pieces and moves, but nothing is ever captured.

Unions

A piece that moves onto an opponent’s piece does not take it: the two stand together on the square as a union. Either player may move a union later, always as their own piece in it, and it takes its partner along. A union goes only to empty squares.

Chains

A single piece may also move onto a union and take the place of the piece of its own colour there. That piece is released and moves on in the same turn: to an empty square, onto an opponent’s piece (a new union), or onto the next union, which releases the next piece. This chain reaction can run across the whole board. A turn ends when a piece lands without releasing another one.

The king

The king never forms a union and never takes part in a chain: it only steps to empty squares. Castling works as in chess, as long as the king is not threatened and does not pass through or land on a threatened square; a rook in a union takes its partner along.

Pawns

A pawn steps forward to an empty square, two squares from its first two ranks, and moves diagonally forward only onto an opponent’s piece. A pawn in a union moves only straight ahead. En passant works also in unions and in the middle of a chain. A pawn that reaches the last rank promotes, also when the opponent carries it there in a union: then you choose its new piece at the start of your turn.

Winning

You win by uniting one of your pieces with the opponent’s king, directly or at the end of a chain. A king that could be reached this way is threatened, and the player bar says so. Unlike check, a threat does not forbid any move: if you ignore it, your opponent can simply win.

Draws

The same position three times, fifty moves each without a new union or a promotion, every piece but the kings in a union, or no legal move are draws.

Playing on this board

Pick up a piece and put it down by clicking or dragging. In a chain the released piece hovers over its union, and a bar under the board says which piece moves on; you can start the move over there. Only steps after which the move can be finished are offered.

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.
• Atomic chess · Every capture is an explosion that clears the pieces around it.
• 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.

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.