
Photo by William Warby on Unsplash
Dice Chess Rules
A fun variant for playing chess with friends and family.Here's a fun chess variant that you can play with friends and family who might not be serious chess players. It still involves playing real chess, so you'll likely be at an advantage. I played it over the holiday season with family and it was great fun.
There are all sorts of rules out there for how to play dice chess. The rules below come from the dice chess Wikipedia article and made the most sense to me. Here's a PDF if you'd like to print it out: Dice Chess Rules (Google Drive).
Dice Chess Rules
The players alternate rolling two six-sided dice and, if possible, moving. The player may move either of the pieces indicated on the two dice.
1 = Pawn, 2 = Knight, 3 = Bishop, 4 = Rook, 5 = Queen, 6 = King
For example, a player rolling a 1 and a 2 may move either a pawn or a knight. A player who rolls doubles (the same number on both dice) may play any legal move. Otherwise, standard chess rules apply, with these exceptions:
- A player who has no legal move with either of the pieces indicated by the dice loses that turn (passed turn).
- If castling is otherwise legal, a player may castle upon rolling a 4, 6, or doubles.
- An en passant capture of a pawn is possible only if the player rolls a 1, or doubles, immediately once the opportunity for the en passant capture arises;
- A player who is in check must roll for a piece that can make a legal response to that check (capturing the checking piece, moving the king, or interposing a piece). If they don’t get a piece that can make a legal move, they lose that turn but do not automatically lose the game.
- Except in the unlikely event that the game ends in a draw pursuant to the standard rules of chess, the game ends when one player either checkmates the opponent or captures the opponent's king.
Variant
If you want to increase your handicap and give your opponent even more of a chance, consider letting them roll three dice but keeping all the other rules the same. They’ll have more pieces they can move and a much higher chance of rolling doubles (1/6 for doubles with 2 dice and 5/12 for doubles with 3 dice).
Photo by William Warby on Unsplash
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