Editing Chess (section)

==Rules==
;Basic rules
* Two players play this game.
* [[Image:Checkmate.png|thumb|<del>[[Just as planned]]</del>. [[Derp|That's not even a legal move!]]]]The players' goal is to <strike>kill the King of the opponent</strike> put the opposition King in a situation that would result in his death next turn, without a way to escape. This is called a checkmate; the Persian "Shāh Māt" literally means "The king is dead" with some changes in Arabic. If the king is threatened, we call it check, and - because of the Brutality Rule (below) (and because you would immediately lose after it) - you cannot allow him to be killed. You have to:
** move the King away,
** get a piece of your own between the King and the piece threatening to provide cover or
** capture the attacker piece.
*If you can't do any of these, the death of the King is inevitable; you lose.
* If a King is dead, his troops will surrender IMMEDIATELY. If you expose your king but you can kill the enemy king in the next move (such as by placing your own king within striking range of the enemy one), you still lose (and thus, are not allowed to expose him in the first place, because of the Rule of Brutality).
* You can also lose when you resign, or if you run out of time (on a timed game, usually professional games). If neither player has enough resources to kill the enemy King, or if both players agree to this, the game ends in a tie. Stalemate also ends the game in a tie, look below.
* The game doesn't encourage passive play, if the same position is repeated three times or if 50 turns pass without moving a pawn or killing anyone, there is no progress made and both players are allowed (not forced) to claim a tie.

;The arena 
The battlefield is an 8 by 8 board, the columns (files) marked with letters, the rows (ranks) with numbers so that the squares can be referenced easily (with [[Main Page|d4]] or similarly). The board is checkered, h1 is white.

The game is played in turns, one turn is the period of time between (for example) before white's move to after black's next move.

;Brutality rule 
Even pre-teen kids play this game, so no actual killing is ever shown. The game ends if a king is threatened with inevitable "capture". So, it's against the rules to expose your king (for example, by moving a piece previously granting cover to the king (think of it as if the piece was pinned down) or moving the king to a threatened square) because the opponent could kill the king. (These moves would only be good for losing anyway.) Also, when killing any other pieces, it's officially called capturing them.
However, throughout history, and in military philosophy, it is generally considered that if one can get their opponent to surrender and said opponent can't gain anything from surrendering beyond what the winner sees fit, that is better and more productive than a fight, which is risky and whose resources could be better spent elsewhere. Today is the logic behind military cyber attacks followed up by an email, for example, letting opponents know their system has been compromised.

;Combat system
In this game, initiative is key because there ''aren't'' tons of hit points granted for every piece. If your piece attacks first, even a pawn can kill the enemy queen, because everyone has only a single wound. Everyone is always surprised (apparently they don't really want to fight and are forced to by the king) so if it's your turn, you can capture any piece you threaten. You can't attack pieces through cover (except with the Knight). You can't move without attacking (except with the pawn) but you can attack empty squares too (again, except with the pawn). If you attack either an empty square or an enemy piece, you'll win the fight and you must move the attacking piece to the attacked square. This move is compulsory, you cannot decide not to. You can't attack your own piece, even when they provide cover for the enemy, we aren't [[skaven|savages]] here. Quite easy and streamlined, eh? Guess it reminds you of [[4e|something]]...

=== The Pieces ===
[[Image:Chessmechs.jpg|center|640px]]
Unlike similar games, you don't get to assemble your battleforce. It is probably because the field is rather small (40' by 40'), and both players have 16 pieces. So the starting force is the same for both players (an approximately 38-point army).

'''King:''' {BOSS} <big>♔ ♚</big> One of the weakest individual pieces, he is on the battlefield to give the army a morale bonus to fight indefinitely.  If one interprets each turn as perpetual fighting and movement, they drug their troops. But in the context of classical warfare, the turn might represent an entire year, where warfare meant a lot of standing around waiting and little bursts of conflict. He can attack all the squares around him like any basic D&D characters. He isn't worth any points but you must field one to play, and he is subject to the Brutality rule as outlined above.

'''Rook:''' {TRUKK} <big>♖ ♜</big> You have two of these powerful pieces. They are basically castles with cannons on them so they can attack everything in the row and column they are on(but watch out, Cover rules apply for them too). Just like everyone else, they can only attack once per turn. Funnily enough, they too have to move to the square they attacked.  Capable of "Castling," a complex maneuver outlined below. They are said to be worth 5 points.

'''Bishop:''' {MEKBOYZ} <big>♗ ♝</big> People will tell you that they have similar powers to the Rook. Don't believe them! Basically, they can do everything the Rook can, but only diagonally, which means that half of the battlefield is simply as unreachable as another continent. This is why you get two of them, one for the white squares, and another for the black.  Due to this limitation, they are considered worth less than the Rooks at 3 points. And no, you aren't allowed to ask why <s> [[Sisters of Battle|the king brought fucking preachers to a battlefield]]</s> the clergy is taking sides in a mortal conflict since they are just supposed to fund those. While both the Knight and Bishop are nominally rated 3 points each, the Bishops are considered slightly stronger due to having greater range, though this is dependant on board state - when the position is closed and Bishops movements are restricted, Knights are generally superior. 

'''Queen:''' {Battlewagon} <big>♕ ♛</big> This is easy. She gets to do everything the Rook AND the Bishop can. She is the strongest piece in your army, she '''''really''''' doesn't get [[-4 STR]]. Tournament rules only permit fielding one Queen per army, but an army can airdrop the equipment to turn a Pawn into another Queen as reinforcements in the late game if they can get far enough into enemy territory. The Queen became a powerful piece when the game came to Europe, back in India she and the king were almost equally incompetent with the Queen being slightly better. Today, the Queen is globally accepted as the most powerful single piece on the board, but because pieces insta-die if attacked this also means you have to be very cautious when playing her. Point value is 9, and worth every one. 

'''Knight:''' {DEFFCOPTAS} <big>♘ ♞</big> This is the most controversial piece of the Chess army. People will tell you that it's difficult to keep in mind how they can attack. Lies! It's very easy: a Knight is basically a character with a reach weapon. He can't attack squares next to him and he can attack all the squares 10 feet of him, except the ones which the Queen would be able to (most likely balance reasons, and everything about chess is a giant commentary on feudal hierarchy, i.e., the Queen<the Knight). This leaves 8 targetable squares, arranged in L-shapes around him. He is also the only piece able to attack pieces behind cover. Still, for their limited range and mobility, the are considered as valuable as a bishop unit at 3 points.

'''Pawn:''' {BOYZ}<big>♙ ♟</big> The backbone of your army. You've got 8 of them, and they can move only forward one step in a turn. If they haven't moved or attacked yet, they can move two squares to give them a head start. However, unlike most pieces, they can't attack forward, only diagonally, forward-left or forward-right, and they can't attack empty squares. They seem quite weak and indeed, they are the unit against which others are measured, being worth only a single point, but this changes when they reach the opponent's end of the battlefield. When they are there, they don't become unusable, they get special powers instead: They will become a queen, a rook, a bishop or a knight (your choice). No you cannot make your pawn into another king, as much sense as it would make to have a backup (or not, given that doubling your opponent's chances for a checkmate or Brutality rule shenanigans is effin' stupid). This doesn't even take a turn, at the moment they reach the end of the battlefield, you can switch the pieces. In professional play, the arbiter can provide you with the extra piece, in casual play, you can just use counters. If your opponent claims that you can only use previously captured pieces, either he lies or I do right now, and it's not a bad idea to just agree on this sort of thing in advance. Pawns also have a special skill called "En passant" (holy hell), which you can use when one of your Pawns stands on any square of the fourth line from your enemy's view and one of his Pawns tries crossing a square that your Pawn could attack (i.e. the enemy Pawn doing the aforementioned 2-square move). When using the skill, your Pawn moves to that attackable square while killing the enemy Pawn who was trying to sneak across.

=== Army setup ===
[[Image:Chess_algebraic_notation.png|right]]
White can field  pieces from a1 to h2, black from h8 to a7.  Each army is built with 38 points + one "King" command unit.  Flexibility was sacrificed for the sake of game balance, so both armies must deploy the same units in a strict predefined formation.  This is enforced even outside tournament matches; almost all chess players will refuse to play if you don't assemble and deploy your 38-point army in this manner.

* You place the King and the Queen to the middle of the row closest to the players: Queens d1 and d8, Kings e1 and e8.
* Next to them (c1, g1, c8, g8) come the bishops, then the knights and finally the rooks.
* The second row (a-h 2 and a-h 7) is filled with the 8 pawns of the players.