Martian Chess is an Icehouse game (http://www.wunderland.com/icehouse) – © 1997 by Andrew LooneyPage 1
Martian Chess
Designed by Andrew Looney
Setup
Martian Chess is a game for 2 or 4 players which uses Icehousepieces and a Chessboard.Each player uses 9 pyramids, 3 of each size. However, the color of the pieceswill be of no significance in this game. In fact, in order to make it easier todisregard the color of the pyramids, each player should select a variety of colorsto start out with.Players start by setting up their pieces in their own corners of the board, asshown below.
The Pieces
The largest size pyramid is called a Queen. Itmoves like a Queen in normal chess.The middle size pyramid is called a Drone. Itmoves like a rook in normal chess, but is limited tomoving either 1 or 2 spaces at a time.The small pyramid is called a Pawn. It moves like abishop in normal chess, but can only move 1space at a time.
The Board
To play Martian Chess, you need to imagine a pair of perpendicular dividinglines, which split the board into fourths. These dividing lines are called Canals.During the game, each player will have complete control of one of the 4 zonesseparated by canals.
How to Play
As stated earlier, color is meaningless in Martian Chess. The way you knowwhich pieces you control is determined instead by the location of the pieces atany given moment. Any piece located in your zone of the board is yours – onlyyou may move it. The upshot of this is that anytime you move a piece across acanal, it changes ownership and becomes one of your opponent's pieces.Pieces are captured just as they are in normal chess; if a piece is moved onto thesquare of an enemy piece, it captures that piece. This means that, in order tocapture a piece, you must move it across a canal, thereby giving control of thepiece you used to make the capture to the player you captured the piece from.
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Interesting chess variation. I've never played one that moves diagonally. I'll have to try this!