Rules (Draft)

Board and Pieces

Mount Chess is played on an ordinary chess board with one player playing the white pieces and one player playing the black pieces. Each player starts with 2 flags, 7 farmers and 7 hunters.

Basic Movement

• Flag may move 1 square orthogonally or diagonally.
• Farmer may move 1 square orthogonally but never backwards.
• Hunter may move 1 square diagonally but never backwards.

A square may only be occupied by one piece at the time.

Capture

If a piece moves to a square occupied by an opponent piece, the opponent piece is captured and removed from the game.

Farmers may not capture Hunters and Hunters may not capture Farmers.

Mounting

If a piece moves to a square occupied by an own piece, the two pieces are "mounted" into one stronger piece.

• 1 farmer and 1 hunter mount to 1 cavalry.
• 2 hunters mount to 1 archer.
• 2 farmers mount to 1 chariot.

Flags and mounted pieces may never mount. Mounted pieces may not "unmount".

Mounted movement

• A cavalry may move to any square 2 squares away, ignoring any other pieces in its first square.
• An archer may move any squares diagonally as long as no other pieces stand in the way.
• A chariot may move any squares orthogonally as long as no other pieces stand in the way.

Promotion

If a farmer or a hunter moves to the final rank, it is immediately mounted.

• A hunter may mount to a cavalry or an archer.
• A farmer may mount to a cavalry or a chariot.

End of Game

A game ends with a victory if a player either captures both opponents flags or moves a flag to the final rank.

A game ends with a draw in the following cases:

• The same position is repeated 3 times.
• The players agree to draw.

Miscellaneous

The Chess rules for Castling, En Passant and Stalemate have no equivalents in Mount Chess, nor do the Chess rules for Stalemate or 50 moves without pawn movement/captured pieces.

Rules