I am not a strong chess player - it’s always seemed to me more like study than play. However, I do like the ideas in chess: a ragtag army of pieces with different moves, battling to protect their king. I wondered if I could take those ideas that many players are already familiar with, and mix them together with some newer game mechanics from the last 500 years of board game design. This collection contains chess games I’ve designed with hidden information, bluffing, deduction, role selection, and yes, zombies. They can all be played with a standard chess set and common items like pencil and paper, coins, and playing cards.
Hopefully, serious chess players can enjoy these as a light break between regular chess games, and new chess players can use them as a gentler introduction to the classic game. Players of different chess abilities that might find a game of regular chess frustrating may enjoy exploring these games together.
- Zombie Chess is a game where you bury each piece you capture under one of your pieces. If you move off a buried piece, it comes back from the dead as a zombie. (2 players, chess set, coins, pencils, and paper)
- Masquerade Chess is a combination of chess and deduction games like Mastermind. Pieces move regularly, except when they capture. Start the game by choosing which capture moves each of your opponent’s pieces will use, then try to deduce how each of your pieces can capture. (2 players, chess set, pencils, and paper)
- Two Move Chess makes both players simultaneously choose two pieces to move each turn, but choosing the same piece cancels out. (2 players, chess set, and deck of cards)
- Adrenaline Chess adds power ups to chess. (2 players, chess set, and checkers set)
- Tar Pit Chess uses cards and checkers to trap your opponent in tar. (2 players, chess set, checkers set, and deck of cards)
- Chess Golf makes players race to plan the best route, as the pieces caddy each other around the board. (1 or more players, chess set, deck of cards, timer, coins, pencil and paper)
- Crowded House is the only four-player game I know of on a standard chess set. (4 players and chess set)
- Cooperative Chess lets you play together against the game. (2 players, chess set, and deck of cards)
- Half Alice Chess moves pieces through the looking glass to a parallel universe after each move. (2 players, chess set, and checkers set)
- Chess960 is a game designed by Bobby Fischer to mix up the game opening by randomly choosing your starting position. (2 players, chess set, and deck of cards)
- Synchronous Chess makes both players write down a move, then move at the same time. (2 players, chess set, paper and pencil)
If you’re interested, you can read my design journal. If you’re brave, you can read about experiments in progress (PDF).