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Plastic Animal Chess Rules Board Game

Format:
Board Game

Genre:
Strategy

Style:
Physical
Competitive
Turnbased

Buy/Support:
Support Ed, click to buy via us...

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Plastic Animal Chess has become something of an Internet meme in the few days since its invention by an eight year old. Here are the rules so you can try it for yourself.

Mark Changizi's eight-year-old daughter's response to him teaching her chess was to reinvent it from the ground up. The next day she presented him with the rules for her new improved version of the classic game.

The new variant, described across the four hand-written pages had ten different types of pieces and 18 in total. This was far more complex than the original game.

The next minute they were laying out plastic animals for each piece on the checkered tile floor and working out their strategies for the game. There was a Doctor who grants invulnerability to any adjacent piece; a Replacer that when landed on enables the player to swap any two pieces with their opponent and even a Civilian who has no power but obstruct movement.

Having told the game's story on Wired, I wanted to present the rules to Changizi's chess variant for everyone to play.

• The game proceeds like a normal game of chess.
• The board is nine squares wide rather than eight.
• Rather than white and black pieces players choose plastic toys to represent each character.
• A note should be made about which piece each plastic toy represents.
• Rather than remove the pieces that are taken, they remain on the board.
• A jail area is required next to the board as a temporary holding area for jailed pieces.
• Each player has 18 pieces.
• The following pieces start on the back row:
• 1 Guard: Stays at the beginning and blocks attacks on the king.
• 2 Master: Jumps as far as he wants diagonally.
• 3 King: Needs to be protected and moves one space diagonally and forwards (not backwards).
• 4 Doctor: Moves up to five squares forwards and revives one piece it is next to.
• 5 Jailer: Moves one in any direction, pieces he takes are put in jail. If he is taken the jailed pieces are released to their starting positions.
• 6-9 Knight: Moves forwards or sideways. Can take pieces exactly two squares away. Each player has four knights.
• The following pieces start on the front row:
• 10 Flyer: Moves two, five, or seven squares in any direction.
• 11 Replacer: Moves one in any direction, pieces he takes are swapped with a jailed piece.
• 12-13 Sneaker: Moves any number of squares along the outer edge of the board only.
• 14-18 Child: Can't take other pieces as they don't fight, but tries to protect pieces by blocking movement.

Give it a go and let us know how you get on.

Written by Ed Stephens

You can support Ed by buying Plastic Animal Chess Rules



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Ed Stephens writes the Board Gamer column.

"In a world of ever advancing technology, where gaming is often synonymous with consoles, I'm here to take a different approach and look at board games."

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