How to play Atomic Chess

Learn the rules to the Chess variant: Atomic Chess quickly and concisely – This video has no distractions, just the rules. For a refresher of the original Chess rules, check out this video:

Play chess online for free here:

(As an chess.com affiliate we earn from qualifying subscriptions)

Buy Double-Sided Chess Discs here:

Don’t own Chess? Buy it here:
amazon.com –
amazon.ca –
amazon.uk –
amazon.es –
amazon.de –
amazon.fr –
amazon.it –
amazon.nl –
amazon.se –
amazon.pl –
amazon.com.br –
amazon.sg –
amazon.au –
amazon.co.jp –
(As an Amazon Affiliate, I earn from qualifying purchases)

RULES:
The object of the game is to checkmate or blow up the enemy king. Whenever a piece is captured, a 3 by 3 “explosion” one the captured space occurs. This explosion removes all pieces in its range, except for pawns, including the capturing piece. If you blow up your opponent’s king you immediately win. The ability to blow up the enemy’s king is considered the same as blocking a check or capturing the attacking piece in regular chess. A player therefore, is allowed to escape what would be a checkmate in regular chess by blowing up the enemy king.

Because the piece performing a capture is also blown up, kings are not allowed to capture. This allows situations where unprotected pieces can deliver checkmate. You are not allowed to blow up both kings simultaneously. You are allowed to move your king into check so long as your king lands on a space next to your opponent’s king. Any situation that where 1 player’s king is forever next to their opponent’s king results in a draw.

Pawns can only be removed from the board when they are directly involved in a capture. In that case, both pieces are removed as well as any others caught in the blast. For en passant [on passon] the explosion happens around the space where the capturing pawn lands.

124 Comments

  1. Chess but Michael Bay
    Would be more interesting if the King just captures pieces normally without blowing up anything

  2. Okay, but when do I get to launch an RT-2PM2 Topol-M cold-launched three-stage solid-propellant silo-based intercontinental ballistic missile?

  3. consider a variant where instead of a 3×3 each piece when it captures blows up the pieces it can directly capture at that moment.

    A Pawn explodes the diagonals in front of it.
    A Rook explodes the first piece it could touch up, down, left, and right.
    A Bishop explodes the first piece it could touch on the diagonals.
    A Queen explodes the combined blasts of the bishop and rook.
    A King explodes a 3×3 square around it.

  4. Custom rules you can use that aren't part of the main rules for this variant.

    1. A captured Queen Piece in your pool may be used during your turn to fire into the center and explode. This will cause a 5×5 explosion, and end your turn.
    2. Captured pieces in a player's pool that ARE NOT a Queen may be used to make a 2×2, 3×3, or a 4×4 explosion during their turn on any spot where a King or Queen will not be in the blast radius. This will end their turn.
    Pawns make a 2×2 explosion.
    Bishops and Knights make a 3×3 explosion.
    Rooks make a 4×4 explosion.
    This explosion cannot be used during the opponent's turn, or after you move a piece or capture.
    3. Explosions from capturing varies from ranking.

    This uses the same ranking from Custom Rule 2, with Queens having a 5×5 radius.

    4. An explosion from a capture makes the area where the explosion was hinder movement.
    A pawn cannot En Passant in that area until 3 turns pass.
    A Rook and King cannot Castle if the Rook was at least 1 space away from the explosion for 3 turns.
    Knights will not be able to jump over the area of the explosion for 2 turns.

    5. Any piece can explode on demand during the player's turn, this will make a 2×2 explosion no matter what, but not use up your turn. This means you can explode your pieces near an enemy king.

    6. If both kings are blown up simultaneously, then the game ends in a draw.

    7. If the king is in checkmate, he can explode on the player's permission.

  5. I have an idea about this variant: I'm called it's Minetaker Chess, a Puzzle game!
    Rule: Clear the board by moving a piece to capture and explosion a 3×3 area,
    For example, The Board has King a1, Rook a2, Queen b1, and Bishop b2, and a Knight at b3,. Move Knight to a1 and capture the King to clear this area. You win when you clear all the board

  6. Ah yeah, WW2 Japanese Chess thats not Shogi, but civilian is somehow Overpowered

  7. So basically Pawns are the main character is what you want to tell us?

  8. So basically chess for the middle east?

  9. Think if you destroy one pawn on start in the game… (Also idea is pretty good)

  10. Man the modding Community is getting real creative

  11. "you cannot blow up two kings simultaneously"
    How'd you get into my head?

  12. would it not be better, to extend the rules of what constitutes a check instead of allowing a kings explosion to end the game?

  13. "Suicide is badass" – The creator of this game, probably.

  14. Ah…I see you learned the lessons of the Tennison's Gambit.

  15. Chess but every piece is a suicide bomber

  16. My buddy and I played this but made the king a bomb defuser. So any pieces near it that it captured get defused..

  17. ケイちゃん⫽CMYK8964⫽聴覚魅了誘発機器 says:

    This should have been called Michael Bay Chess

  18. The statement said at 1:16 is wrong, you can still win if the two kings are connected. You just need to blow up a piece that is next to the opposing king while not being next to your own. You could also break the connection between the kings by forcing the opposing king to walk out of the connection by making it the kings only move, therefore forcing them to play a zugzwang.

  19. Imagine a variant where all pawns in the exploding area are also removed and it’s a 5×5 explosion

  20. Rule that you can move even tho your king is in check is really stupid, everything else is fine

  21. How about a chess where you can capture your own piece for extra life for that piece meaning you can ressurect that piece on there classic position whenever they die for each ally piece they capture

  22. Hey first off love your videos 😊 second, where did you get the disk shape pieces?

  23. Imagine if this was played in real life…

  24. It is funny that both players end up in a stalemate just because both kings are adjacent to each other in this kind of chess

  25. Oh man, did you cover Rifle Chess yet? I really wanna know more about that variant.

  26. This gives a new meaning to "trading pieces" tbh

  27. I started playing this more than regular chess and it messed me up. I have a hard time playing regular now because it's a completely different playstyle

  28. finally, I can do the tennison gambit with the intercontinental ballistic missile move without breaking the Geneva conventions and not getting charged for several war crimes🥰

  29. everything here seems like regular chess, except en croissant? wtf is that

  30. now i wanna play a magnetic atomic chess

  31. In this variant, you don't want to capture a piece with your Queen.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *