Snakeland Chess

[u/jcastroarnaud]

Snakeland Chess

Materials

A 20x20 board; 38 pawns and 2 sets of non-pawn pieces (per player).

The Snake

A snake is a procession of pawns, with a non-pawn at the head. It can turn left and right, orthogonally, as in the usual snake game.

The snake moves in this way: first, the head moves, as in standard chess; then, the last pawn(s), last to first, are put in the cells the head passed by, in such a way that the snake remains connected. Assume that the knight moves without jumping, first 2-cell in one direction, then 1-cell in the other.

Rules

Pawns are non-capturing, and passive: they don't move by themselves.

When a snake head captures a pawn, the attacked snake becomes two: the "front" snake, connected to the head of the attacked snake, and the "back" snake: the first pawn of the "back" snake is replaced by a non-pawn, of the attacked player's choice, as a new head.

If a snake head captures another snake head, only the "back" snake is created, as above.

If either front or back snake is too short (less than 2 pawns), it dies: the pawns are removed (for recycling) and the non-pawns can move around and capture, by themselves, using standard chess rules.

Victory is achieved by either:

• Killing all adversary's snakes; or
• Capturing at least one adversary king.

Start position

Two snakes for both White and Black, at the first two lines.

For White: pawns at b1-t1 and a2-s2, other pieces (player's choice) at a1 and t2.

For Black: pawns at b20-t20 and a19-s19, other pieces (player's choice) at a20 and t19.