A practice board. Learn the pieces here; the real game comes after.
no opponent needed
Play both sides yourself, or take turns with whoever is sitting next to
you.
The rules, in one place
Ordinary chess, on a board five files wide and ten ranks deep, with
four changes.
All movement is jumpy: every piece goes straight to
its destination and nothing can be blocked, including a pawn's
opening double step.
Everything is short range: the bishops can only move
two spaces diagonally; the rooks can only move three spaces along a
rank or a file.
The board is a cylinder, so the leftmost and
rightmost files are neighbours (like in Pac-Man).
There is no queen on this board, no castling and no en passant; a
pawn reaching the far rank promotes.
As always, checkmate wins; a player with no legal move who is not in
check draws.
The rules, in one place
Ordinary chess, with five changes.
All movement is jumpy: every piece goes straight to
its destination and nothing can be blocked, including a pawn's
opening double step.
Everything is short range: the bishops (and the
queen) can only move two spaces diagonally; the rooks (and the queen)
can only move three spaces along a rank or a file (note: this leaves
a single blind spot on the rank).
The knight is wider here. Its typical pattern of
(2,1) and (1,2) is widened horizontally to (2,2) and (3,1). See the
tutorial below.
The board is a cylinder, so the leftmost and
rightmost files are neighbours (like in Pac-Man).
No castling and no en passant.
As always, checkmate wins; a player with no legal move who is not in
check draws.