Card Chess

This game, invented by Gregor Richards and Harry Metzger, aims to merge some of the features of chess into a game played with standard playing cards.

== Beginning ==

Shuffle together two standard 52-card decks. Put out a five-by-five board of face-down cards, and deal each player five cards. Each side has a color, black or red. Red plays first, and from then on play continues back and forth between the two players.

== The Board ==
The board's five ranks (rows) each have a name, but the five files (columns) are simply numbered:

As such, moves can be described such as "black castle 1 to black kingdom 1".

== Turns ==

On each turn, you may:
 # Play in a card from your hand that's of your color, if one of the spots in your castle is free and you have less than five pieces in play,
 # Show all of your cards to the opponent, discard them, and draw five new cards, so long as your previous move was not also to exchange your cards, or
 # Move any of your pieces on the board that can move.

If, on your turn, it is impossible to do any of these, but the other player would be able to move or play in a piece if it was their turn, you lose immediately. If the other player could not move or play in a piece if it was their turn, the game is considered stalemated and neither side wins.

At the end of every turn, if you have less than five cards in your hand, you draw back up to five cards.

== Playing in Pieces ==

You may only play in a new piece if you have less than five pieces in play. To play in a piece, you simply remove it from your hand and place it on a free spot in your castle. At any point you may have any number of pieces in play less than or equal to five; that is, you do not need to play in a new piece when you have less than five in play.

== Movement ==

In this section, movement will be described by grids, with the center square representing the current location of the piece. 'M' will be used to represent a cell that can be moved to, 'C' will be used to represent a cell that the piece can capture a piece on, and '*' will be used to represent a cell that the piece can move to or capture a piece on. The top of the grid is away from the castle of the piece.

When you capture an opponent's piece, their piece is removed, yours is placed, then that spot is flipped; which is to say, your card goes face down, and the card that was face down goes face up. If the now-face-up card is an opponent's card, you may replace it with an opponent's card from your hand. Because of this style of capture, capturing is not guaranteed to be beneficial. However, don't underestimate the value of knowing what card has been flipped down at a particular place.

The captured piece and the replaced piece (if applicable) are placed in the discard pile. When the draw pile becomes empty, the discard pile is shuffled and used to replace the draw pile.

=== Pawns ===

2-10 act as pawns (in movement). Pawns may only capture less powerful or equal pawns. 10 is allowed to double out.

General moves:
| C| M| C|
|  | **P**|  |
| &nbsp;| &nbsp;| &nbsp;|

For 10, from castle:
|  | M|  |
| C| M| C|
| | **10**|  |
(The double move is only legal if the cell immediately in front of the pawn is free)

=== Face Cards ===

Any face card can capture any other face card, and can also capture any pawn.

==== Jacks ====

General moves:
| *|  | *|
|  | **J**|  |
| *|  | *|

From castle:
| *| C| *|
|  | **J**|  |

==== Queens ====

General moves:
|  | *|  |
| *| **Q**| *|
|  | *|  |

From castle:
| C| *| C|
| M| **Q**| M|

==== Kings ====

| *| *| *|
| *| **K**| *|
| *| *| *|

==== Aces ====

Aces move like kings, but can also jump:
| J|  | J|  | J|
|  | *| *| *|  |
| J| *| **A**| *| J|
|  | *| *| *|  |
| J|  | J|  | J|

Jumps are only legal if:
 * The target spot is empty, and
 * The spot between the ace and the target spot has a piece in it (of either side)

The piece that is jumped over is not captured or moved.

== Check and Victory ==

When a piece reaches the opponent's castle after any captures and flips, that piece and that spot are called "in check" and are no longer in play (that is, the player may now play in another piece). The piece cannot be moved or attacked, and the spot can no longer be used.

When you have five pieces in check (that is, all five of the spots in the opponent's castle are in check), you win.