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How to play Atomic Chess: rules and setup

Atomic Chess is played by 2 players on a board with 8 × 8 squares. White moves first. Captures explode nearby pieces. Win by destroying the opposing king or delivering atomic checkmate.

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Play Atomic Chess

Quick answer

Atomic Chess is a chess variant in which every capture causes an explosion. Exploding the enemy king wins. The capturing piece, the captured piece and all non-pawn pieces on the eight surrounding squares are removed. The game uses the standard chess setup, and checkmate also wins. A move may never blow up your own king, so the two kings can stand side by side. This guide covers Atomic Chess. 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: Atomic Chess

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.

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

Moves and captures

  • Legal moves

    A capture removes the capturing piece, the captured piece and all non-pawn pieces on the eight adjacent squares. Adjacent pawns survive. Other movement follows chess.

  • 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 king can never capture, and no capture may explode your own king.

  • When the two kings stand next to each other, neither king is in check.

  • Exploding the opposing king wins even if your own king is in check.

Winning and draws

  • Exploding the opposing king wins immediately.

  • Checkmate also wins.

  • Stalemate is a draw, and king against king is drawn automatically.

  • 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
Atomic Chess
  1. Lichess — Atomic 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.