Spartan chess

How Spartan chess is played

Spartan chess is Steven Streetman’s game of 2010 for two different armies. White, the Persians, have the pieces of ordinary chess; Black, the Spartans, have two kings and pieces of their own. The Persians win by taking one Spartan king and checkmating the other, or by attacking both at once so that no move saves either; the Spartans win by checkmating the Persian king.

The armies

The Persians set up as in chess and move first. The Spartans stand on the 8th rank: lieutenants on a8 and h8, the general on b8, kings on c8 and f8, captains on d8 and e8 and the warlord on g8, with eight hoplites on the 7th rank.

The Spartan pieces

The general moves as a rook, or one square diagonally. The warlord moves as a bishop or leaps as a knight. The captain moves one or two squares along a rank or file, leaping over the first square if it is occupied. The lieutenant moves one or two squares diagonally, leaping in the same way, or one square sideways, but this sideways step never takes. The kings move as kings.

Hoplites

A hoplite steps one square diagonally forward onto an empty square and takes the piece one square straight ahead: the reverse of a pawn. On its first move it may go two squares diagonally forward, leaping over the first, but never taking. It never moves back. On the 1st rank it becomes a warlord, general, captain or lieutenant, or a king if the Spartans have only one king left. There is no en passant in Spartan chess, for either side.

Two kings and the duple check

While the Spartans have two kings, neither is in check: a king may step onto an attacked square, stay attacked or be uncovered, and the Persians may take it. A move that leaves both kings attacked is forbidden. When both are attacked at once, that is a duple check, and the Spartans must bring at least one king out of attack. With one king left, it is an ordinary king. The Spartan kings never castle; the Persian king castles as in chess.

Winning and draws

The Spartans win by checkmating the Persian king. The Persians win by checkmating the last Spartan king, or by a duple check that no move answers. A side that has no legal move and is not in check is stalemated, a draw, even when one of two Spartan kings is attacked. A position repeated three times, and fifty moves by each side without a capture or a pawn or hoplite move, are draws. This app also ends at once a game with nothing but kings, or with a single bishop or knight against a lone king, which the rules do not mention. Two Spartan kings can mate a lone king, so that is no draw.

Other readings

In the game’s first form the general moved as a rook and a knight; computer games showed the Spartans too strong, and it became the rook with a diagonal step. The rules do not say whether a hoplite may become a second king while the only king is in check; this app allows it when the new king is not attacked, as Fairy-Stockfish does (Ludii does not).

The story

The Chess Variant Pages · Steven Streetman’s game of 2010

When and where

Spartan chess is the game of Steven Streetman, who published its rules on the Chess Variant Pages in November 2010. White are the Persians, with the army of ordinary chess; Black are the Spartans, with two kings, pawns called hoplites and four pieces of their own.

How it changed

H. G. Muller made his program Fairy-Max play it, and hundreds of games between computers helped Streetman settle its final form and balance. In its first form the general moved as a rook and a knight; because the Spartans won too often, it became a rook that may also step one square diagonally. From January 2011 the WinBoard program knew the game.

Today

It is one of the best-known games for two different armies. PyChess added it in 2023 and calls it one of the original asymmetric variants; it is also played on the Chess Variant Pages’ Game Courier and in the Jocly and Ludii programs.

Did you know?

Streetman gave the Spartan pieces Greek ranks. The game can be played with an ordinary set: a knight stands for each Spartan king, the king for the general, the queen for the warlord, a rook for each captain and a bishop for each lieutenant.

Original piece names

two kings · polemarchos (the warlord) · strategos (the general) · tyntagmatarchos (the captain) · tagmatarchos (the lieutenant) · hoplites (the pawns)

Sources: Steven Streetman, The Chess Variant Pages · H. G. Muller, XBoard · PyChess

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