Chess
Chess needs no introduction and no house variant. Sixteen pieces a side, one king to corner, and a game that has survived centuries of people trying to solve it. Boxless plays the whole rulebook rather than a simplified board: castling on both wings, en passant, and promotion where you pick the piece instead of being handed a queen. Draws are called properly too — stalemate, the fifty-move rule, insufficient material — so a dead position ends instead of dragging on out of politeness. Two players on their own devices, with a bot to sharpen against when there is nobody across the table.
- Players
- 2
- Playing time
- 30 min
- Ages
- 8 to adult
- Hidden
- Nothing
How it's played
Sixteen pieces each, six ways of moving, and one piece that matters more than the other fifteen put together. Everything below follows from the king not being allowed to stand in danger — including the rules that look like they are about something else.
Every square is used, and only twenty things can happen
Checkers, next door in this category, leaves half the board as scenery. Chess uses all sixty-four squares — and still the opening position is so packed that white has only 20 legal moves to choose from, 16 of them pawns getting out of the way.
The board opens up as pieces come off it. That is why openings feel like a different game from endings: the same rules, applied to a board with room in it.
squares, and every one of them is in play
pieces at the start — half the board is occupied
moves white can legally make on move one
hidden information: both players see everything
King
One square, any direction — and never onto a square where it would be attacked.
Queen
Any distance, any of the eight directions. Rook and bishop in one piece.
Rook
Any distance along a rank or file, until something is in the way.
Bishop
Any distance diagonally, which means it never leaves the colour it started on.
Knight
Two squares then one, at a right angle — and the only piece that jumps what is between.
Pawn
One square forward, two from its opening square, and it captures diagonally instead.
Three moves break their own piece's pattern, and Boxless plays all three:
Two pieces, one move
The king steps two squares toward a rook and the rook hops over it. Boxless checks all of it: neither piece has moved, the squares between are empty, and the king's square, the one it crosses and the one it lands on are all unattacked.
A capture on a square nothing is on
A pawn that runs two squares past an enemy pawn can be taken as if it had only gone one — and only on the very next move. Miss the moment and it is gone.
Four moves, not one
A pawn reaching the far rank becomes a queen, rook, bishop or knight — your choice, and the game treats each choice as a separate legal move rather than promoting for you.
Your pieces answer to your king
The game builds two lists. First what your pieces could do, then it plays out every one of those moves and throws away any that leaves your own king under attack. You are only ever shown the second list.
What the pieces can do
Every move on the board
33 moves the pieces are shaped to make
Rooks down open files, knights out, pawns forward — everything a piece can do considered on its own. This is the first list, and you never see it.
What the game accepts
The moves that answer the check
6 moves that leave the king safe
Every other move is played out, found to leave the king attacked, and dropped. Not rejected when you try it — never offered in the first place.
Nothing on that board is pinned by a special rule. The bishop on b4 has a clear diagonal to the king, so every move that does not break the line or step off it fails the same single test — which is also the whole of what a pin is. Of the 6 that survive, five block the diagonal and one moves the king aside. Taking the bishop is not among them: nothing white owns can reach it.
No legal moves.
Now which one is it?
Checkmate and stalemate are the same test — the legal list came back empty. One question separates a loss from a draw: was the king being attacked at the time?
Checkmate
Attacked, and out of moves
- Moves the pieces could make
- 8
- Moves that keep the king safe
- 0
- King under attack
- Yes
The rook holds the whole back rank and black's own pawns hold the only squares the king could run to. Nothing blocks, nothing captures, nothing moves. Black loses.
Stalemate
Safe, and out of moves
- Moves the pieces could make
- 3
- Moves that keep the king safe
- 0
- King under attack
- No
The queen covers a7, b7 and b8 and deliberately not a8. Black is under no attack at all and still has nothing legal to play. It is a draw — and for the player who was winning, a disaster.
Stalemate is one of three ways a game ends level. Boxless calls all of them without being asked.
Stalemate
No legal move and no check. The game ends level however far ahead either side was.
Fifty moves, nothing happening
A hundred half-moves with no capture and no pawn moved and the game is called. It is the stall-breaker, and unlike Checkers' version it really is a draw — material does not decide it.
Not enough left to mate
Bare kings, a king and one knight or bishop, or a bishop each on the same colour. There is no mate in any of them, so the game does not make you prove it.
And the one that is not a draw
Forfeit. Leaving hands the game to your opponent — there is no draw offer and no resignable position, only this.
If the room liked this
Competitive two-player solitaire! Race to play cards on shared foundations.