Codrus

Sacrifice your King to win. There is no concept of check — the King can walk into danger and must be deliberately captured. Named after King Codrus of Athens, who sacrificed himself to save his city.

Codrus — starting position

Setup

Board: Standard 8×8.

Setup: Standard chess starting position.

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

Rules

There is NO check, NO checkmate. The King is not protected by check rules.
The King can move into attacked squares freely.
The King can be captured like any other piece.
Forced captures do NOT apply — capturing is optional (unlike Antichess/Giveaway).
Castling is available (King and Rook haven’t moved, squares between are empty).
All other standard movement rules apply.

Win Condition

Lose your King (have it captured by the opponent). You WANT your King captured.

Strategy

A mind-bending inversion. You want to get your King captured, but your opponent doesn’t want to capture it. The game becomes about forcing your King into positions where your opponent has no choice but to take it — or where refusing the capture leads to a worse position. Blocking your own King’s “escape routes” toward the enemy is key. Your opponent will try to avoid your King while attacking your other pieces.

Attribution

Named after King Codrus of Athens. Traditional variant. Public domain.