Suffocation Chess

By Tarun Moni

Board

The game can be played with a F.I.D.E. chessboard.

Setup

The setup is the same as F.I.D.E., except the pawns are placed one extra row forward, on the third and sixth rows.

Pieces

The game can be played with F.I.D.E. pieces.

Rules

All pieces move like rooks but capture by 'suffocation', this occurs when all orthogonally adjacent squares to the target piece are either occupied (by any side's pieces) or 'choked' by an enemy's piece.

A piece 'chokes' any empty square that its F.I.D.E. version would normally be able to threaten. For example: a king would 'choke' all the squares around it; a pawn would 'choke' it's two forward-diagonally adjacent squares.

Note: if a piece is on a square that is 'choked' by the enemy, nothing happens to it; only by 'choking' all orthogonally adjacent unoccupied squares can it be captured. Additionally, if no spaces orthogonally adjacent to a piece are unoccupied, it is immediately captured. This DOES enable you to kill your own pieces by surrounding them.

Equipment

The game can be played with an F.I.D.E. chessboard with F.I.D.E. pieces.