FOOD FIGHT

Welcome to the game of carefully strategized mess-making!

There's a (very) slowly-growing trend for fairy chess pieces named for food items. So, why not get them all together for a collective battle?

Unlike the more familiar kind of "food fight" where people throw food at each other, this is more of a battle between animated food items. Perhaps the Chefs are also wizards of some sort; or maybe this is a cartoon world. Either way, it's the food that's doing the fighting, and either Chef getting hit by a food item is Game Over!

Setup

Play is on a 12x12 board. Setup should follow the diagram below.

The Chef goes at the back center, to White's right and Black's left; the Pancake goes next to it. They are flanked by Meatball, Rutabaga, Cantaloupe, Sausage, and Rhubarb.

In the second row, from the center outward, are Pepperoni, Mushroom, Waffle, Falafel, Meatball, and Doughnut.

The third row (the Pawn Row) has four Piglet Pawns in the center, with the rest filled out by Fish Pawns.

Pieces

The pieces are as follows:

Chef: The Royal piece for each side. The Chef moves one space diagonally, or one or two spaces sideways.

Cantaloupe: Leaps (1,3) or (3,4).

Doughnut: Leaps two spaces orthogonally, or (1,2) like a Knight.

Falafel: Like the Modern Elephant, moves one space or leaps two spaces diagonally.

Meatball: Moves to any adjacent space, leaps two spaces orthogonally or diagonally, or leaps (1,2) in a Knight's forwardmost moves.

Mushroom: Moves diagonally backward one space, leaps (1,2) forward or backward like a Narrow Knight, or leaps (1,3) sideways and forwards like a Camel.

Pancake: Moves to any adjacent space; or makes a series of two or more (1,2) leaps in a straight line (like a Nightrider) provided one of those leaps goes over an obstacle.

Pie: Makes repeated steps (not leaps) of exactly two orthogonal spaces each in a zigzag pattern, or may move without capture directly or diagonally backwards.

Pepperoni: Moves one space forward, backward, or diagonally; or leaps two spaces either directly sideways or diagonally forward.

Rhubarb: Slides orthogonally like a Rook, or diagonally up to three spaces.

Rutabaga: Slides diagonally like a Bishop, or orthogonally one or two spaces.

Sausage: Moves one space left, right, or diagonally; or leaps forward or backward either (1,2) like a Narrow Knight, or three spaces orthogonally.

Waffle: Moves one space orthogonally, or leaps two spaces diagonally.

Fish Pawn: Moves one space directly forward or backward without capturing, or one space forward diagonally to capture. May make an initial move of two spaces directly forward.

Piglet Pawn: Moves and captures one space diagonally forward, or moves without capture one space directly or diagonally backward. May make an initial move leaping two spaces diagonally forward.

Rules

Except where noted otherwise, all the usual rules of Chess apply.

The Pawns can promote to anything other than Chef (or each other).

Notes

Most of the pieces in this game were invented by Ralph Betza, generally as illustrations of ideas. The Meatball, Pepperoni, and Sausage were invented by John Lawson for The Pizza Kings, a setup for Chess With Different Armies.

The Chef, Cantaloupe, Pie, and Piglet Pawn are my own inventions.

• The Chef was created for both this game and Dealer's Chess; I had a need for an additional Royal in the other game, and this one was formulating in my brain at the time.
• The Canteloupe was somewhat as a joke, being a combination of Camel and Antelope, with the name coming as a portmanteau of the other two.
• The Pie was invented specifically for this game.
• The Piglet Pawn was invented for Hundred Acre Chess (though it does also appear in Dealer's Chess).

I would also have included a couple of Chicken Pawns (also my own invention), but the Interactive Diagrams can't really handle the conditional limitations of their backward move (which is allowed only when under attack).

(I'm uncertain of the origin of the Fish Pawn.)

Last revised by Bob Greenwade.