Check out Balbo's Chess, our featured variant for October, 2024.

This page is written by the game's inventor, Charles Daniel.

Carnage

Carnage features 3 new pieces that capture or attack the enemy not by displacement but by 4 different methods: The Terror Freeze immobilizes all surrounding pieces, the Dragon captures by approach or by withdrawal and the Detonator detonates all surrounding pieces without moving. The game also includes Knights with additional stepping powers, and a special stronger type of pawn.
Carnage adds much of the tactical gameplay of Rococo to that of Chess since the new pieces: the Terror Freeze and the Dragon are derived from the Advancer, Withdrawer and Immobilizer.
Carnage is a sister game to Wreckage, having an identical start configuration and differing only by the piece that is dropped during play: the Terror Freeze instead of the Flying Guillotine.

Setup

Carnage  Start position

black ninja pawn black ninja pawn black ninja pawn black ninja pawn black ninja pawn
Carnage Start position

Coordinates for white. (black mirrors white)

Detonator on a1
Dragon on j1
Rooks on b1,i1
Wazir-Knight on c1
Ferz-Knight on h1
Bishops on d1, g1
Queen on e1
King on f1
Pawns from a2- j2
One Terror Freeze to be dropped in empty space from a1-j1
5 Ninja Pawns to be dropped in empty space from a2-j2

white ninja pawn white ninja pawn white ninja pawn white ninja pawn white ninja pawn

Pieces

The standard pawn

Moves exactly as in standard chess except:
The pawn can move 1-3 spaces towards the center during any turn.
It can move from its original position 1, 2 or 3 vacant squares forward, or if its first move was only 1 space forward or if it captured from its start position, it can move forward 1 or two spaces towards the center.
En-passant is logically applied to meet these changes.
From the middle (rank 5 for white, rank 6 for black), it can step only 1 space forward into the upper half of board, but from thereafter it can go one or two vacant spaces forward.
For example, a pawn can start at e2 push forward to e5 then make one step to e6 then go e8, and promote at e10 in 4 moves!
Note that if a pawn makes the two step pawn move and bypasses an enemy pawn, it can be captured en-passant.
see rules for more info.

The Ferz-Knight - moves like a knight or makes one step diagonally.

The Wazir-Knight - moves like a knight or makes one step orthogonally.

The Dragon
  1. It can move without capturing like a Queen or a Knight.
  2. It can capture the enemy piece by approaching along an unobstructed path in forward directions N, NE and NW only and stopping one square short.
    It is mandatory to make the capture if this move is carried out.
  3. It can also capture by withdrawing 1 or more spaces away from an adjacent enemy piece along an unobstructed path in the directions S, E, W, SE and SW. (Backwards and sideways).
    It is mandatory to make the capture if this move is carried out i.e you cannot witdraw backwards and sideways from an enemy piece and not capture.
  4. It CANNOT capture Pawns or Ninja Pawns under any circumstance.
  5. It NEVER captures by replacement.
  6. It can NEVER capture when jumping. It can only jump like a knight when not capturing.
Dragon Moves Here the Dragon can capture the bishop and knight by advancing towards them.
It is also checking the black king.
Dragon Moves Here the Dragon can capture the rook, knight and bishop by withdrawing from them as shown.
It cannot capture the pawn by withdrawing.

The Dragon can also slide like a queen or jump like a knight to any square without capturing.
However capturing is not optional, i.e. in diagram it can only move without capturing along the line d6-a3.


The Detonator
  1. It can move without capturing like a Queen or a Knight.
  2. It can capture all adjacent pieces without moving, and this detonation counts as 1 turn.
    Note that it must either capture ALL adjacent pieces or none at all; there is no choice of which to capture.
    The detonation counts as one turn.
  3. It cannot capture Ninja Pawns. Note that it CAN detonate standard pawns.
  4. It cannot capture by replacement, and it never captures by moving.
The Detonator shown can capture any piece on the red squares. It does not move when capturing.


The Terror Freeze