ChessDeck game rules

ChessDeck is based on chess, and uses the regular chess rules. It doesn’t teach you chess, but assumes you know the basic rules, and can play chess already. Most of the known chess rules are applicable – en passant, promotion (to any piece), threefold repetition, seventy-five moves rule, you know the drill. The game aim is as usual: try to make a checkmate; don’t get checkmated; at least, get a stalemate.

The difference between the regular chess and the ChessDeck games is that you also have the cards you are using for your moves.

There are several variations of ChessDeck implemented and planned.

“Classic” game

Deck

In a “classic” chessdeck game, both players have the same common deck of 32 cards:

16 “pawn” cards;
4 “rook” cards;
4 “knight” cards;
4 “bishop” cards;
4 “queen” cards.

You can notice the deck is basically two sets of chess pieces. Except there are no cards for a king, but there are two more cards for queens.

Pawnts

Each card has some “action points” (pawnts) value:

1 for pawn cards;
3 for knight and bishop cards;
5 for rook cards;
9 for queen cards.

If you ever played chess seriously, you know what are these numbers: these are basically the “worth of the piece in pawns”. Here is why it is called “pawnts”.

Start game

On starting the game, you see the regular chess board. But also you, and your opponent, have your decks shuffled, and both of you are dealt 3 cards. Note that both your hand and opponent hand are normally visible – knowing the opponent hand is a part of information you should consider during your strategy.

Making a move

When making a move, each of the sides does the same operations:

Sheds 0 or more cards;
Does the move on the board, according to the cards being shedded;
Getting dealt one card from the remaining deck.

There are three ways you can shed the cards and make the move:

You can shed 0 cards. In this case, you can move only your king. That king’s “pawnts value” is 0, so you can move it always if it’s possible.
You can shed exactly 1 card. In this case, you should move exactly the piece which is displayed on the card (there are “pawnt limit of the turn” though, see below). E.g. if you shed the “knight” card, you move the knight (not a pawn, not a rook, not even a bishop – only knight).
You shed 2 or more cards. In this case, their pawnts value is combined, and you can move any piece which pawnt value is smaller or equal to the combined value (but not higher than the “pawnt limit of the turn”). E.g. if you shed a pawn card (1 pawnt worth), another pawn card (1 more pawnt worth), and a knight card (3 pawnts worth), that makes a total of 5 pawnts; if the pawnt limit of the turn is 5 or higher, too, you can use all of these 5 pawnts, and move a rook – even though you haven't shedded a rook card.

Pawnt limit of the turn

Each turn has a limit of pawnts that can be used for it. The first turn has a limit of 3, the second has a limit of 4, the third turn has a limit of 5, and so on. The seventh turn has a limit of 9 pawnts, and every subsequent turn has a limit of 9 pawnts too.

This effectively means that during the first two turns, you can move only pawns, bishops and knights (though that’s what normally happens in regular games).

Since the third turn, you are enabled to move the rook.

Since the seventh turn (and any subsequent turn) you can move your queen.

Remember that the king’s “pawnt value” is 0, so you can move it always (if the game permits).

Pile

The cards (used during a move) are transferred to the player’s pile. When all the deck is used, the pile is being shuffled again and put instead of the deck.

Pass

There may be moments in the game, when you would be able to move some piece, but you don’t have the appropriate cards: no combination of your cards would let you make a legal move (and you cannot even move your king without shedding any cards).

In this case, you are not required to do any moves. You can make a “pass” move, and the turn is switched to your opponent.

This is different from regular “stalemate” situation, in that during the stalemate you cannot legally move any pieces (including king) due to the board situation. In a “pass” condition, you do have the valid moves on the board, you just don’t have the cards to do them.

Note you cannot claim “pass” at any moment on your wish; if there is any combination of your cards that would let you shed 1 or more cards and make a move, or your king can move – you have to make that move, and cannot claim “pass”.

After declaring “pass”, you are dealt a new card anyway (so it is less likely you will be able to declare pass on the next turn).

Strategy hints for regular chess players

None of your openings knowledge would help. Your cards will decide what you can move, and what your opponent can move. You should pay much more attention to the available move (and the moves that can be become available).
None of your endgames knowledge would help either. A knight and a pawn against a queen? Depending on the cards you have (and your opponent has), they can be much much stronger.
Expensive pieces are expensive. You should have a strong hand of cards (many high-pawnt cards) if you want to move rook and especially queen. Otherwise your attack would choke.
If you lost some pieces, but have the cards for them – the cards are at least usable to collect pawnts for moving stronger pieces.
Even both knight and bishop worth 3 pawnts, you cannot shed a bishop card to move knight, and vice versa. But if you shed a bishop card and, say, an extra pawn card (shedding total of 4 pawnts), you can move the knight (well you haven’t shedded the proper card, but you shedded enough pawnts); and vice versa, for bishop. Interestingly, you can do that even if the point limit of the turn is just 3 (not sure it is very smart though, to spend a bishop and a pawn cards to move a knight on the very first move).
Nobody could stop you from shedding more pawnts than you need for the turn (and even more than the turn pawnt limit). Why should you, though.
Shedding multiple cards to combine their pawnts relieves your hand. You'll have less cards and less pawnts for the stronger attacks in the future.
On the later stages of the game, the King is unexpectedly strong (Wilhelm Steinitz would be happy!). It doesn’t need pawnts to move, and doesn’t spend your cards from your hand. You can also rely on King being able to move. And you always dealt a new card from the deck after the King move! – so you get more cards to facilitate a stronger plan of attack by the other pieces.