Martian chess The Martian Chess Set won the Origins Award for "Best Abstract Board Game of 2000". The rules to the game were reissued in "3HOUSE" booklet in 2007, again by 2013 in Pyramid Primer #1 and in 2016 as a part of "Pyramid Arcade" boxed set. Each player starts with nine pieces: three small ("pawns"), three medium ("drones"), and three large ("queens"). The color of the pieces is irrelevant to the gameplay. A mix of colors is recommended. Players initially place their pieces in the corners of the board as shown. In a two-player game, only a half-board is used. The
Chess with different armies rook replacement to c1. This is so colorbound pieces don't change square color. Many pieces in the following armies are combination of standard chess pieces and 4 fairy pieces: "ferz", "alfil", "wazir" and "dabbaba" (see their movement diagrams above). The game can be played with standard chess pieces and the following move diagrams use standard pieces as well (except queens). In this army, rooks, knights, bishops, and queen are replaced by the following pieces: As mentioned, when using this army and castling queenside, the king moves "three" squares (from e1 to b1) and the bede moves from a1 to c1.