Chutes and Ladders Chess

By Ralph Betza

Pieces may move from one board to the other, but only by moving onto squares which contain chutes or ladders.

Rules of Chutes and Ladders Chess

1. Chutes and Ladders Chess is played on two boards; at the start of the game, each board is exactly like the FIDE Chess board, and each board is inaccessible from the other.

2. Chutes and Ladders Chess is played with two chess sets, including two Kings. It is possible to make a move that puts both of one side's Kings in check, and unless both cannot get out of check this counts as checkmate.

   See the Composed Example which follows the rules; it will clarify this situation.

3. Starting with Black's first turn, each player makes a two-part move; the first part is a legal move (which means you must get out of check), and the second part optionally places or removes a chute or a ladder (subject to the definitions and restrictions which follow).

   The second part of the move is optional; you may choose to neither add nor remove any chutes or ladders.

4. Definition of Ladder: A ladder lifts pieces from board 0 to board 1. The lifting is immediate and is not optional.

   In order to be lifted, a piece must stop on the ladder square; moving across the square (as, for example, a Rook might do) does not lift the piece.

5. Definition of Chute: A chute drops pieces from board 1 to board 0. It is exactly like a ladder except that it works in the opposite direction.

6. Kings and chutes and ladders: The Kings, like every other piece, may be lifted or dropped.

   A King may not move onto a square which is attacked, even though a chute or a ladder would then take it to safety. For example, White King 0d6, Black King 0d8, ladder d7; Black may not play Kd8-d7 even though the King would be lifted to the safe square 1d7.

7. Ownership of chutes or ladders: Only the player who made a chute or a ladder may remove it.

   The player who made the chute or ladder owns it in this sense, and there is a limit on the number of chutes or ladders a player may own.

   Ownership does not affect lifting or dropping. Pieces of either color are lifted or dropped equally by chutes or ladders owned by either player.

8. Making a chute or ladder: Chutes or ladders may be made only between the same square on different boards. At least one of the two squares must be empty, and the thing cannot be made if the player already owns the maximum number of such things.

   You cannot place a chute or a ladder on a square which already has a chute or a ladder.

9. Removing a chute or a ladder from an occupied square has no effect on the piece there.

10. Limit: Each player may own no more than two chutes and two ladders, four things in all.

11. You may not move onto a chute or onto a ladder if the square to which your piece would be dropped or lifted is already occupied, but you may move across such a square (for example, with a Bishop).

Composed Example of Chutes and Ladders Chess

Suppose we have Black Kings at 0e4 and at 1f5, Black Pawns at 0f4 and 1f4, a chute at e3 owned by either player, a White Rook at 0e1 and a White Pawn at 0e2. The remainder of the position is unspecified.

Now White plays 1. 0e2-0e4/+0e4, in other words the White Pawn moves from e2 of board 0 to e4 of board 0; then as the second part of White's move a ladder is added which lifts the Pawn from 0e4 to 1e4.

Now both Black Kings are in check. Fortunately, there is a saving move.

Not legal is 1... 1f4x0e3 en passant. That is, the Black Pawn on f4 of board 1 could try to capture the White Pawn en passant and then use the chute on e3 to descend onto board 0 and block the check from the Rook; but the White Pawn did not cross 1e3 and therefore the Pawn on board 1 cannot capture it en passant.

Instead, 1... 0f4x0e3 en passant removes the Pawn from 1e4 and blocks the check of the Rook at 0e1, and saves both Kings.

Opening Example of Chutes and Ladders Chess