Secret Chess

In this Final Match, the players will be playing a modified game of chess, but where each player can only see half of the board. Players will attempt to deduce where their opponents pieces are, and threaten them to score points - once the Match is over, the player who has scored the most points will win.

Set-Up

This Match is played on a 6x6 board. However, each player is only able to view three of the six ranks, and is only permitted to move pieces within those three ranks. Each player will receive five pieces - King, Queen, Bishop, Rook, and Knight. At the beginning of the Match, each player will place those five pieces in any of the six spaces along their home rank, leaving one space - of their choice - empty. Further, each player may designate up to two spaces in their opponent's half of the board to be falsely marked as threatened.

Once each player has made their choice, they will be shown the board, as they can see it - each player will see the location of their pieces, as well as several squares filled in red. A square filled in red means it has been marked as threatened - this means that either it was a space chosen to be falsely marked as being threatened, or that it is within the movement range of an opponent's piece.

The Pieces

Each player has five pieces, described below;

The King is immovable and immortal.

The Queen moves as she does in chess - as many spaces as the player chooses, in any straight line. The Queen has a lifespan of 1.

The Bishop moves as it does in chess - as many spaces as the player chooses, along any diagonal. The Bishop has a lifespan of 2.

The Rook moves as it does in chess - as many players as the player chooses, along any rank or file. The Rook has a lifespan of 3.

The Knight is a special case. At the start of the Match, it will move as it does in chess, and have a lifespan of 4. However, when a player moves their Knight, they may choose to power it up - this will extend its range to an L of the form 3 squares in one direction, and one square to a 90 degree turn, as opposed to the usual movement of 2 squares and 1 in an L shape. If the player does this, the lifespan of the Knight will be immediately reduced to 3.

Turn Procedure

Each turn will consist of four steps, as outlined below:

1. Lifespan Reduction

Each piece belonging to the currently active player that has been moved at any point during the Match will reduce its lifespan by 1. If the lifespan of the piece reaches 0, it will be removed.

2. Board Update

The currently active player will be shown a diagram of the board, as they can currently see it. All spaces currently threatened by an opponent's piece will be shown marked in red, as well as spaces that are falsely marked. The current location of all of the active player's pieces will be shown, as well as their current lifespan, if they have been moved. If the active player has no pieces besides their King in play, the turn will immediately proceed to Step 4. If this is not the case, they will proceed to Step 3.

3. Movement

The active player will select one of their pieces, and execute a move with it. The King may never be moved, and a player may never decline a move. A player may never move a piece into a space in their opponents territory, nor may they capture an opponent's piece. Any space in their opponents territory that the active player could have moved to in regular chess is considered to be threatened and will be marked in red when that player receives a board update.

When a piece is moved for the first time, its lifespan begins to expire. This expiry only occurs at the start of the turn of the player possessing that piece. Pieces may be moved as often as the player wishes.

4. Scoring

Both players will score points for each piece threatened. Each player will score 1 point for each piece of their opponents that they are currently threatening. If an opponent's piece is being threatened by multiple pieces, the player will score equal points. Threatening your opponent's King is worth 2 points, instead of 1, for each piece threatening it.

Note that both players score at the end of each player's turn. Further, note that both friendly and hostile pieces are capable of blocking a Queen, Rook, or Bishop's attack - only a Knight is capable of attacking pieces hidden behind another piece.

If a player has a piece on a square that has been falsely threatened, their opponent will not score a point for the false threat. If that square, however, has been threatened in the usual way in addition to being declared falsely threatened, the threatening player will score 1 point, as per usual.

Scoring Example

Note that for the purposes of this example, the entire board has been revealed, where usually the half of the board that does not contain a player's pieces will have a ? on each square. Also note that, for ease of visibility, both players use White pieces in this game as there is no risk of confusion between each player's pieces.

In this example, the upper player has made the first move, by moving their Bishop. As a result, the upper Bishop has its lifespan, currently at 2, displayed. The upper player will score 2 points - 1 for the Bishop that is threatened by their Rook, and 1 for the Knight that is threatened by their bishop. Note that the upper Bishop is blocking the upper Queen, which would otherwise be threatening the lower King.

Meanwhile, the lower player will score 3 points - 2 points for the King, being threatened by their Queen, and 1 point for the Knight, being threatened by their Bishop. After these points are apportioned, the lower player will take their first turn.

End of Game

When both players are reduced to their Kings, the Match will end. The player that has the highest score will be declared the winner. In the event of a tie, a sudden-death tiebreaker will begin. Each player will have 90 seconds to submit the original piece formation of their opponent, with the player that makes more errors in submission being eliminated. In the event that both contestants are completely correct, or make the same number of mistakes, the sudden death will continue, with both players having 90 seconds, once again, to declare which move their opponent made each turn. When 1 player is correct, and 1 is wrong, the wrong player will be eliminated.

Items

There are three Items available in Secret Chess. There are two copies of Life Freeze, which a player may use after taking their turn to name a piece. That piece will not have its lifespan decreased during their opponents turn and the Item player’s next turn. To clarify, if Aaron uses a Life Freeze on his Queen during his turn, at the beginning of Kevin’s turn, if his Queen’s life was to be degraded, it does not. Then, at the start of Aaron’s next turn, his Queen’s life is not degraded. The Life Freeze does not have to be played on the piece that was moved.

The third Item is False Square. This allows you to place an additional falsely targeted square at the start of the Match.

Kevin and Inro each received the Life Freeze Items. They both chose to give it to Aqua.

Kevin’s choice was accompanied by the message - “to both of them - Best of luck, Fighting!”

Agus received the False Square Item. He chose to give it to Emile.