How to Play Wizard's Chess

Wizard's Chess

• 1

  Find a copy of Wizard's Chess. Word's like "out of print" might be bandied about by those that normally sell this sort of thing, but don't let that deter you. Search eBay, or Amazon.com's zshops. If you just run a search for the game, there are good odds that you'll find someone with it. Buy it from him or persuade him to let you play with his copy.

• 2

  Set up the board in the way that chess is normally set up with kings and queens at the middle edge opposing the color of the opponent. Place bishops, knights and rooks on the outside of the king and queen, with rooks on the farthest square from the central couple. Pawns are lined up in front of them, one to a square, so that you have two lines facing an opponent with two lines.

• 3

  Move pieces in the manner of traditional chess. This may seem anticlimactic, so feel free to embellish with noises or your imagination, unless you're in a tournament. Then restrict yourself to imagination.

Chess Rules

• 4

  Attack in the manner of movement for almost all pieces, with the exception of pawns. Pawns attack one space diagonally.

• 5

  Move pieces in alternating order of player with the following guide: rooks can move any distance in a straight line, bishops move any distance diagonally, knights move three in one direction and one on the opposite axis, queens move any distance either diagonally or in a straight line and pawns move forward one.

• 6

  Check your opponent's king by arranging so that any move made will endanger the king.