Anti Chess

Object: To lose all of your pieces or be stalemated.

A Pawn can move straight ahead one square, or two squares from
its starting position. A Pawn captures by moving one square ahead and
diagonally. If a Pawn reaches the far rank it promotes, changing into
a Knight, Bishop, Rook, Queen, or even a King. On rare occasions Pawns can
also execute a move called `En Passant`, or `in passing`. This allows a Pawn to
take an enemy Pawn that has just moved two squares.

A Knight moves like an `L`, two squares vertically plus one
horizontally, or two squares horizontally plus one vertically. It
hops over any pieces on the way.

A Bishop moves any number of squares on a diagonal. It may
not leap over other pieces.

A Rook moves any number of squares orthogonally on a rank
or a file. It may not leap over other pieces.

A Queen moves any number of squares in a straight line.
It may not leap over other pieces.

A King can move to any adjacent square. Castling is not allowed.
Unlike regular Chess, in Losing Chess there is nothing 'royal' about the King
and he may be captured like any other piece.

All capturing is mandatory, though you may choose which capture to
make. The King is not royal and may be captured without ending the
game. Pawns may be promoted to a King.

This is one of the most popular chess variants, currently being played and
studied a lot in the Italian organization AISE (Associazione Italiana Scacchi
Eterodossi). A closely related variation `Take Me` was invented in 1874 and
Losing Chess is probably much older than that. The first known analysis dates
from 1901.

It is possible to make a blunder from the very first move. Be wary
of letting your Bishops get loose. They are mobile enough so the opponent
might devise a chain of captures for the Bishop to make, but not mobile enough
that the Bishop will have choices of captures and thus be able to force a recapture.

(C) Zillions of Games