1234 Chess

For my software engineering senior design project, I had the pleasure of working with six of my classmates on an interface to play an abstract game I invented called “1234 Chess”. Although that was three years ago, 1234 Chess has not been forgotten. Instead, now it is back, in its new and improved form!

For those of you that are curious, here are the rules. The game is so simple, it only needs five rules to describe it in its entirety!

  1. 1234 Chess is an abstract board game, played by two players, White and Black, on a 10×10 board. Each player has 24 pieces: eleven 1-pieces, eight 2-pieces, three 3-pieces, and two 4-pieces. White moves first, then players alternate making moves until someone meets a victory condition, described at the very end.
  2. On your turn, you must move exactly one of your pieces. 1-pieces move exactly 1 square in any direction, like a chess king. 2-pieces move exactly 2 squares in any one direction, and can jump over an intervening piece. 3-pieces move exactly 3 squares in any one direction, and can jump over any intervening pieces. 4-pieces move exactly 4 squares in any one direction, and can jump over any intervening pieces. Jumped pieces belonging to either player are not affected whatsoever.
  3. You may not move one of your pieces to a square that is already occupied by one of your other pieces.
  4. If you move one of your pieces to a square that is occupied by one of your opponent’s pieces, of the two pieces, the lower numbered piece is captured and removed from the board. If both pieces are equally numbered, then both pieces are captured and removed from the board, in a so-called trade.
  5. There are two victory conditions in this game. Victory by Infiltration is when you advance one of your 1-pieces all the way to the farthest rank (the row where your opponent’s 3-pieces and 4-pieces started), and it is not captured by the start of your next turn. Victory by Elimination is when you capture all eleven of your opponent’s 1-pieces. The first player to meet either of these victory conditions wins the game. If both players’ last 1-pieces are simultaneously captured in a trade, the game is a draw. Also, if 100 moves go by without a capture being made, the game is a draw.