Material:
Two 16-count decks, one with black pieces and another with white pieces. Each has the following:
*8 Pawns
*2 Knights
*2 Bishops
*2 Rooks
*1 Queen
*1 King

Starting the game:
Both players start with identical 16-count decks of cards that represent their chess pieces.
Players shuffle their own decks then draw 4 cards.
The game is played in rounds. Repeat the following until the game ends!

Starting a round –
1. Each player starts a pile:
Players reveal the top card of their deck. Each of those revealed cards is its own pile. If there are no cards in the deck, then you must play one random card from your hand.

2. Take turns playing Cards from hand:
Players then take turn playing their cards. The White player goes first in the very first round of the game, after that it is whoever played the last card last round goes first in the next round.

The turn player chooses a card in hand to play and chooses which pile to play it on. If the player plays it on an opponent’s pile, the player is attempting to capture the enemy piece. If the player plays it on their own pile, the player is attempting to defend their piece making it harder to win. (The player may choose to pass.)

Once decided, the other player then plays a card and chooses a pile. (The player may choose to pass.) This continues between players.

All players get at least one chance to either play a card or pass each round. After that, the round ends after any player chooses to pass. If playing with more than 2 players, then the round ends once all players other than the last player who played a card decide to pass (i.e. There are three players, Bob, George, and Anna. Bob plays a Rook on his pile. George passes. Anna passes. Bob now wants to play a Queen on George’s pile, but he cannot because he was the last player to play a card and everyone else passed, so the round ends.)

3. Capture Pieces:
After the round is over, count the value of the pieces in each pile. Whoever has the most value in each pile gets their pieces returned to them and put off to the side in the reuse pile. All other pieces (pieces belonging to the losers) get captured by the winning player.

If the piles ever tie, then all pieces involved are captured and distributed evenly among all players involved in that pile.


4. Draw Cards:
Before the next round begins, all players draw 3 cards no matter how many were played last turn.

If a player runs out of cards in their deck to draw, they instead shuffle their hand and reuse pile together, then re-draw cards until they have the same number of cards in hand as before they shuffled their hand and reuse pile together. (i.e. Bob has 5 cards in hand, 1 card in his deck, and 7 cards in his reuse pile. At the end of a round, he draws his 3 cards but now he doesn’t have enough to draw! Instead, he draws the rest of the cards in his deck so now he has 6 cards in hand, shuffles his hand and reuse pile together to make a new deck which now has 13 cards, then draws until he has the same hand size as before, which would be 6.) You must do this even if you have no cards in your reuse pile. If you have done this process two times and now have to do it a 3rd time, then instead the game is over and considered a stalemate; the winner is based on the value of the pieces each of them captured.

Winning the Game:
Eventually, the King piece will appear for a player. If that piece is taken then the player who lost the king loses the game regardless of captured pieces!
The game also ends if a player runs out of cards to draw 3 times then it is considered a stalemate and the game ends for all players; the winner is based on the value of the pieces each player captured.

Other Rules:
Card Rules:
Each piece has a special rule to help you win the pile. Read them, and follow what they say. Their rules trump the rule book.

Promotion: If you ever successfully win a pile using only Pawns then you may remove one of those Pawns to take back any of your pieces that were captured.

Castling: Once per a game, if your King is a Starting Piece (a piece flipped over from the top of the deck), as your first move for the round, you may exchange a Rook from your hand with the King piece as long as no pieces have been placed on your king’s pile yet.

En Passant: If you play only Pawns during the round so far, and then any opponent also only played Pawns so far, then during your next turn, you may move any number of Pawns you have in one particular pile to another particular pile instead of playing another card for that turn-.

Team Games: You may play with more than two players by having multiple copies of the game! When you play in teams follow the rules above. If a teammate gets checkmated they may give two cards remaining in their deck, hand, or reuse pile to another teammate who is still in the game. Place these two cards inside the player’s hand(s). When deciding pile results, all players on the same team add up their point values to determine who wins the pile as opposed to being counted separately for each player. The team with the least point value gets all their pieces captured by the winning team. In cases of stalemate, the teams add their captured pieces count sharing one total point value. 

Material:
16-Count White Pieces Deck
16-Count Black Pieces Deck

Starting the game:
Both players start with identical 16-count decks of cards that represent their chess pieces.
Players shuffle their own decks then draw 4 cards.
The game is played in rounds. Repeat the following until the game ends!

Starting a round –
1. Each player starts a pile:
Players reveal the top card of their deck. Each of those revealed cards is its own pile. If there are no cards in the deck, then you must play one random card from your hand.

2. Take turns playing Cards from hand:
Players then take turn playing their cards. The White player goes first in the very first round of the game, after that it is whoever played the last card last round goes first in the next round.

The turn player chooses a card in hand to play and chooses which pile to play it on. If the player plays it on an opponent’s pile, the player is attempting to capture the enemy piece. If the player plays it on their own pile, the player is attempting to defend their piece making it harder to win. (The player may choose to pass.)

Once decided, the other player then plays a card and chooses a pile. (The player may choose to pass.) This continues between players.

All players get at least one chance to either play a card or pass each round. After that, the round ends after any player chooses to pass. If playing with more than 2 players, then the round ends once all players other than the last player who played a card decide to pass (i.e. There are three players, Bob, George, and Anna. Bob plays a Rook on his pile. George passes. Anna passes. Bob now wants to play a Queen on George’s pile, but he cannot because he was the last player to play a card and everyone else passed, so the round ends.)

3. Capture Pieces:
After the round is over, count the value of the pieces in each pile. Whoever has the most value in each pile gets their pieces returned to them and put off to the side in the reuse pile. All other pieces (pieces belonging to the losers) get captured by the winning player.

If the piles ever tie, then all pieces involved are captured and distributed evenly among all players involved in that pile.


4. Draw Cards:
Before the next round begins, all players draw 3 cards no matter how many were played last turn.

If a player runs out of cards in their deck to draw, they instead shuffle their hand and reuse pile together, then re-draw cards until they have the same number of cards in hand as before they shuffled their hand and reuse pile together. (i.e. Bob has 5 cards in hand, 1 card in his deck, and 7 cards in his reuse pile. At the end of a round, he draws his 3 cards but now he doesn’t have enough to draw! Instead, he draws the rest of the cards in his deck so now he has 6 cards in hand, shuffles his hand and reuse pile together to make a new deck which now has 13 cards, then draws until he has the same hand size as before, which would be 6.) You must do this even if you have no cards in your reuse pile. If you have done this process two times and now have to do it a 3rd time, then instead the game is over and considered a stalemate; the winner is based on the value of the pieces each of them captured.

Winning the Game:
Eventually, the King piece will appear for a player. If that piece is taken then the player who lost the king loses the game regardless of captured pieces!
The game also ends if a player runs out of cards to draw 3 times then it is considered a stalemate and the game ends for all players; the winner is based on the value of the pieces each player captured.

Other Rules:
Card Rules:
Each piece has a special rule to help you win the pile. Read them, and follow what they say. Their rules trump the rule book.

Promotion: If you ever successfully win a pile using only Pawns then you may remove one of those Pawns to take back any of your pieces that were captured.

Castling: Once per a game, if your King is a Starting Piece (a piece flipped over from the top of the deck), as your first move for the round, you may exchange a Rook from your hand with the King piece as long as no pieces have been placed on your king’s pile yet.

En Passant: If you play only Pawns during the round so far, and then any opponent also only played Pawns so far, then during your next turn, you may move any number of Pawns you have in one particular pile to another particular pile instead of playing another card for that turn-.

Team Games: You may play with more than two players by having multiple copies of the game! When you play in teams follow the rules above. If a teammate gets checkmated they may give two cards remaining in their deck, hand, or reuse pile to another teammate who is still in the game. Place these two cards inside the player’s hand(s). When deciding pile results, all players on the same team add up their point values to determine who wins the pile as opposed to being counted separately for each player. The team with the least point value gets all their pieces captured by the winning team. In cases of stalemate, the teams add their captured pieces count sharing one total point value.