Blockade Chess

In this Death Match, place pawns to suffocate your opponent and force them to run out of moves.

Designer(s): elara	Match Type: DM (for 2 players)
Featured in: The Choice is Yours, Squeaky Genius: Legends Untold

Strategy DM: Blockade Chess

In Blockade Chess, players place pawns to restrict movement until their opponent can no longer make a move.

Setup

The game takes place on an 8x8 chess board. Each player starts with one queen, two rooks, and two bishops. Pieces move identically as they do in standard chess--queens can move on rows, columns, or diagonals, rooks move on rows and columns only, and bishops move on diagonals only. The game starts on an empty board; players will first place pieces before actually playing.

First, White will start by placing one of their pieces; they may place it on any square that hasn’t been placed on already. Black will follow, and so on, until all pieces have been placed.

Placing is done in snake order, so first white places a piece, then black places two, then white places two, then black two, then white two, then black places the final piece and the game begins with White's turn.

Movement

On each player's turn, they make the following move:

Choose one piece of your color, then move it (to a square it can move to).
Place a pawn on a square that the moved piece can attack (from its new location).

Pieces cannot move through or place through a pawn or another piece. There are no captures, and you cannot place a pawn on a square which is occupied (either by a piece or by a different pawn). All parts of the move must be completed.

Note that pawns cannot move, and merely exist to block squares off.

Timing

You have 60 seconds of normal time for each move. You also have five minutes of reserve time. If you run out of normal time, your reserve time begins counting down. If a player runs out of reserve time, they automatically forfeit the game.

Endgame

If a player is unable to make a move, they have lost the game and the other player wins.

In addition, a player loses if they run out of reserve time.

Advantage

The player with the Advantage decides who is White and who is Black.

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Clarification-y Thing:

Here's an example of a legal move (from a randomly generated board):

To clarify timing: You have 60 seconds to do all parts of your move at once. Doing one part, in particular, does not reset the timer. (This also applies to the setup phase.)

As the well fed snakes retreat to where they came from, you know the best way to find your target is to follow them. After a quick (but painful) venture through some dense forestry, you’re led to a beautiful garden. On the other side of some well-maintained shrubbery, scarily lifelike statues, and a conveniently tiled floor, you spot your target. Even though she hasn’t yet noticed you, there’s an unspoken agreement that someone has to give their life as a distraction. Strategies in minds, and swords in hands, the battle for The Head of Medusa begins.

Garden of Statues is played on a standard 8x8 chessboard. Each player starts the game with one Queen, two Rooks, and two Bishops. These pieces move just like they do in regular chess: Queens can move horizontally, vertically, or diagonally, Rooks can move horizontally or vertically, and Bishops can only move diagonally.

The Death Match Opponent, Amey, will decide which player controls the Red pieces, and which player controls the Blue pieces.

The game starts with the players placing their pieces on the board in snake order. The Red player will place a piece on any unoccupied square, the Blue player places two of their pieces, the Red player places two of theirs, the Blue player places two of theirs, the Red player places two of theirs, then the Blue player places their last piece.

The Red player will then make the first move of the game.

Unlike regular chess, there are no captures in this game. On a player’s turn, they must do both of the following, in order:

Choose a piece of your color, and move it to a different (legal) square.
Place a statue on a square that the moved piece can attack from its new square.

Statues will be represented by colorless pawns. The last statue placed will be tinted with that player’s color.

Pieces cannot move through or place through statues or other pieces. You cannot capture pieces or statues, and must move to and place statues on unoccupied squares. Statues cannot move.

If, on a player’s turn, they cannot make a valid move, they will be turned to stone, added to the garden, and eliminated from the game. The other player will win the Death Match, and collect the Head of Medusa.

You will have one minute to make each of your moves, with a five minute bank of reserve time. If you run out of reserve time, you will immediately forfeit the match. Reserve time will never be replenished or increased.

Blockade Chess

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