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How to play Antichess: rules and setup

Antichess is played by 2 players on a board with 8 × 8 squares. White moves first. Win by losing your pieces. Capturing is compulsory whenever a capture is available.

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Play Antichess

Quick answer

Antichess, also called Losing Chess, is a chess variant in which the goal is to lose all your pieces. It starts from the normal 8×8 position and White moves first. Capturing is compulsory whenever possible, and there is no check, checkmate or castling. The king is an ordinary piece, and you win when you have no pieces or no legal move left. This guide covers Antichess. Check the movement, capture and game-ending rules below before applying rules from another variant.

Players
2
Board
8 × 8 squares
First move
White moves first.

Ruleset and sources: Antichess

Setup

Game illustration
Game illustration. Follow the setup instructions to prepare a new game.

Base rules: chess, except where this guide says otherwise. Use the usual 8×8 chess starting position. White moves first. Kings are ordinary capturable pieces.

Board
8 × 8 squares
Players
2
First move
White moves first.
Rules used here
Antichess

Moves and captures

  • Legal moves

    Pieces move as in chess, but every turn with a possible capture must be a capture. Choose freely between available captures. There is no check, checkmate or castling.

  • Using the board

    Select a piece to see its legal destinations, then select a highlighted square. When several promotions are available, choose from the promotion panel.

Special rules

  • A pawn reaching the last rank may also promote to a king.

  • The king has no royal safety restriction.

Winning and draws

  • You win when you have lost all your pieces, or when it is your turn and you have no legal move.

  • A player may claim a draw after the same position occurs three times, or after 50 moves by each side without a capture or pawn move.

  • Neither rule ends the game automatically.

Example

Sources and rule verification

Ruleset covered
Antichess
  1. Lichess — Antichess rules
  2. Fairy-Stockfish variants (implementation reference)
  3. Fairy-Stockfish — variant definitions (43b66c8, implementation reference)

This guide describes play on ChessPlayX. Platform-specific conventions are stated in the relevant sections; tournament administration may differ.

A separate rule-review date is not recorded for this guide. The update date is not a verification date.