How Capture or Conquer works
All pieces move as in standard chess — pawns, en passant, promotion, all of it. Castling is replaced by two royal manoeuvres, and what changes most is how games end. There are no checks, no checkmates, and no draws of any kind. Prefer learning by doing? Take the interactive tutorial →
There is no check and no checkmate. The King is still the most precious piece on the board — the crown itself — but he stands in the warzone like every other soldier, and he can be cut down like one. In this battle the enemy announces nothing: no warnings, no "check". They want your King eliminated. Capture theirs first and you win on the spot — and you may march your own into danger freely, at your own risk.
March your King onto the opponent's back rank — the gold-marked line. If no enemy piece can capture him there, the invasion succeeds at once: Royal Invasion, and the game is over.
The ultimatum. Arrive on a square that is attacked, and the crown is held in suspense for exactly one move. Your opponent must capture the King right there, right then — that is Victory by Capture for them. If they play anything else, the invasion stands and you win by Conquer the moment their move is made.
Castling is gone. In its place, a vault that works in all eight directions and needs no special rights: your King and a friendly Queen, Rook or Bishop move together, in one turn.
- The assisting piece slides along its normal line of movement and stops on the square directly beside the King. Its path must be clear, and it must actually move.
- The King leaps two squares along that same line, hopping over the arriving piece to land right behind it on the far side.
The landing square must be empty (the square the piece just left counts as empty) and on the board. Knights cannot escort. Nothing else is checked — attacked squares, a King that has already moved, pieces that have already moved: all fine. Escort straight onto the enemy back rank and the Conquer rules apply as usual.
A battlefield ruse: the King trades places with one of his own pawns. In one turn, the King and an adjacent friendly pawn swap squares.
- Rank threshold: the pawn must already stand past the 3rd rank in enemy territory — a White pawn on ranks 4–7, a Black pawn on ranks 5–2.
- Proximity: the pawn must be on one of the eight squares around the King.
The King goes to the pawn's square, the pawn to the King's. Nothing is captured. A pawn moved by Decoy keeps its normal one-square step — it never regains a double-step.
No draws, ever — and the forcer pays
No stalemate, no 50-move rule, no draw offers. When a move puts the same position (pieces + side to move) on the board for the third time, the game ends at once. If both players had choices, the player who made that third-repetition move loses. But if that player was being forced — their King was under attack when they had to move, or they had only one legal move — the loop was the opponent's doing, and the opponent loses. Perpetual attack on a King is a defeat for the attacker.
What's gone from standard chess
Everything else is chess
Everything else is normal chess: standard moves, en passant, auto-queen promotion. Nothing is ever "illegal because of check", since check does not exist — you may leave your King under attack, and you may pay for it.
Common questions
Repetition is a loss — for whom?
For whoever forced it. The test is simple and it is applied to the player who makes the third-repetition move: were they under attack, or down to one legal move? If yes, the opponent was driving the loop and the opponent loses. If not — both sides had choices — the repeating player loses. So shuffling to cling to a worse position loses for the shuffler, and checking a King round and round loses for the checker. The board shows a counter and marks every repeating move with a 2× or 3× badge — red if it would lose you the game, green if it would win it.
Isn't the touchdown ultimatum just check with extra steps?
No. Check restricts the defender's whole move list and is announced. The ultimatum restricts nothing — the defender may play anything — it only says what the game will conclude from their choice: capture the invader and win, or do anything else and lose. Nothing is announced; the board simply shows a flag while the clock is running.
Can the Escort be used to attack, or to run?
Both. The King always lands on the side the assisting piece came from — so a rook or bishop ahead of your King is a launch pad forward, and one behind him is an emergency exit. There is no "once per game": Escort as often as the geometry allows. The King can even be escorted straight onto the enemy back rank, safe or under the ultimatum, exactly as if he had walked there.
Why must the Decoy pawn be so far advanced?
Because the Decoy is a front-line trick, not a home defence. A pawn past the 3rd rank is a soldier already in enemy land; letting the King swap into that line hides the crown where the fighting is and lets a pawn hold a square the King could not. On your own side of the board, your King has the Escort.
How are the manoeuvres written down?
Escort: E + the assisting piece + the square it arrives on — ERf1, EQb2, EBd3. Decoy: D + the pawn's square — De5, Dh6. Everything else uses ordinary algebraic notation.
Can I play it over the board?
Yes — any standard set works, and every rule but one is visible on the board at a glance. Repetition is the only bookkeeping, exactly like claiming threefold in standard chess: keep notation, and a repeat (and who was under attack when it happened) can be verified from the scoresheet. Online, the site counts repetitions for you.
Doesn't losing the King to a blind spot feel brutal?
The first few times, yes — and that jolt is the variant teaching its one great lesson: nothing protects the King except your own vigilance. There are no warnings for either side, so the threat you miss and the trap you set are the same weapon. The tutorial's first lesson exists precisely so you feel it once, safely.