Poison Chess

Poison Chess

Captures leave toxic residue. When a piece is captured, that square becomes poisoned for 3 turns. Any non-King piece that lands on a poisoned square is destroyed.

Setup

Board: Standard 8×8.

Setup: Standard chess setup.

FEN: rnbqkbnr/pppppppp/8/8/8/8/PPPPPPPP/RNBQKBNR w KQkq - 0 1

Rules

• When a capture occurs, the capture square becomes poisoned for 3 turns.
• Any non-King piece that moves onto a poisoned square is immediately destroyed (removed from the board).
• The capturing piece itself is NOT destroyed by the poison it creates — only by pre-existing poison on that square.
• Kings cannot move onto poisoned squares — moving to poison is illegal for the King.
• Poison wears off after 3 full turns (both players moving counts as one tick).
• Multiple poisons can stack on the same square.

Win Condition

Checkmate the opponent’s King.

Strategy

Poison creates dangerous no-go zones that restrict mobility. Exchange sequences leave clouds of poison that reshape the board. Sacrifice a minor piece to poison a critical square near the enemy King. Avoid moving valuable pieces through recently contested territory.

Attribution

Modern variant. Public domain.