Apocalypse (chess variant) A footman promotes to horseman when reaching the last , but only when the player has fewer than two horsemen. Otherwise the player must redeploy the footman to any vacant square. A player wins by being first to eliminate all of the opponent's footmen. Accumulating two penalty points forfeits the game. A stalemate is a draw. Bibliography Apocalypse (chess variant) Apocalypse is a chess variant invented by C. S. Elliott in 1976. The players each start with two "horsemen" and five "footmen" on a 5×5 board. The two sides make their moves simultaneously. The game was featured in Issue 53
Hostage Chess It was published in magazines "Nost-algia" (issue 375), "Eteroscacco" (86–88), and "Variant Chess" (32 and later). It was the "Recognized Variant of the Month" in January 2005 at "The Chess Variant Pages". The inventor, John Leslie, is also a philosopher. He mentions in his book "Infinite Minds" that the prevalence of chess variant inventions such as Hostage Chess has led to speculation that there could be infinite possible variations of chess. He contends these will necessarily exceed the capacity of the human mind. Hostage Chess follows all the standard rules of chess excepting how captured men are treated. Each player