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Koopa Chess

I found the following in a book called "The Encyclopedia of Chess Variants." It's called Koopa Chess and is based on the Mario Brothers series of video games. I don't remember the exact rules, but they go something like this:

All chess pieces act like Mario when attacking, and like Koopas when being attacked. This means that when a piece would normally be captured, it is instead merely stunned for a certain number of turns (one or two, I think). This can be marked by placing a checker under the piece.

The capture process is called "jumping". The attacking piece then moves again in the same direction as it came. (For bishops, rooks, and queens, the second move can be of any distance; for knights and kings, it is a normal move, and for pawns it is another one-square diagonal move - regardless of whether the next square is occupied or not. If the next square is occupied, repeat the process of stunning the occupant and moving on - even if it is a friendly piece. You can't start an attack by stunning a friendly piece, however. If after stunning a piece, the attacker comes to the edge of the board, the attacking piece is lost.

Now for the fun part: Stunned pieces can be used as projectiles! By "capturing" the piece again (this is called "kicking" it), it is sent flying in the direction of the attack. You can kick your own stunned pieces, except for the king. A piece kicked by a knight hops along as if it were a Nightrider. Any pieces of either color in the path of the kicked piece are destroyed, and the kicked piece is lost as well. A threat to kick the opposing king off the board, or eliminate it by kicking another piece into it, is considered check. A move that would kick your own king off the board or kick another piece into it is illegal.


Written by Edward Kolis.
WWW page created: January 4, 2003.