The Enochian Chess Blog

The Color-Bound Pieces of Enochian Chess

Two pieces in every Enochian army spend the entire game on squares of a single color.

The Doubled Throne: Two Pieces on One Square

Set out an Enochian board and something looks wrong at the corners.

Reversion: When a Commanding King Falls

Command in Enochian chess can be borrowed, and anything borrowed can be taken back.

The Tarot Court on the Enochian Board

The four armies of Enochian chess are not only elemental.

Fighting Around a Frozen Army

When a King is captured his army freezes where it stands.

Nine Mistakes New Enochian Chess Players Make

Almost every error a new Enochian player makes is a chess habit arriving where it does not belong.

Enochian Chess vs Go

Go and Enochian chess look like opposites: identical stones against differentiated pieces, a nineteen-line grid against an eight-by-eight board....

Playing Enochian Chess on Your Phone

A game with four armies, thirty-six pieces, and a symbolic attribution on every square does not sound like a phone game.

Aries on the Board

The cardinal fire sign among the board’s zodiacal attributions.

Taurus on the Board

Fixed earth, and what steadiness looks like in a reading.

Gemini on the Board

Mutable air, doubling and exchange in the zodiacal layer.

Cancer on the Board

Cardinal water on a board where Water holds a corner.

Leo on the Board

Fixed fire, and the throne it naturally speaks to.

Virgo on the Board

Mutable earth, the sign of method in a game of method.

Libra on the Board

Cardinal air, balance read across two alliances.

Scorpio on the Board

Fixed water, and the capture that changes everything.

Sagittarius on the Board

Mutable fire, the long march across the field.

Capricorn on the Board

Cardinal earth, structure and the holding of ground.

Aquarius on the Board

Fixed air, and the pattern seen from above.

Pisces on the Board

Mutable water, dissolution at the end of the round.

The Fire Army God-Forms

Chnupis Kneph, Ra, Sati-Ashtoreth, Toum, and Anouke.

The Water Army God-Forms

Ptah, Sebek, Thoueris, Hapimon, and Shooen.

The Air Army God-Forms

Socharis, Seb, Knousou Pekht, Shu Zoan, and Tharpeshest.

The Earth Army God-Forms

Osiris, Horus, Isis, Aroueris, and Nephthys.

Enochian Chess vs a Tarot Reading

Two oracles, one drawn from a deck and one played out.

Enochian Chess for Two, Three, or Four Players

Enochian chess always seats four elemental armies at the four corners of one board.

The Diagonal Alliance

Enochian chess pairs its four armies into two alliances, and it always pairs them across the diagonal.

Why Enochian Chess Has No Checkmate

In ordinary chess the King is never actually captured; the game ends the instant his capture becomes unavoidable.

The Privileged Pawn

Enochian pawns usually promote to a piece decided in advance.

Delayed Promotion

A pawn that fights its way to the far edge of an Enochian board has not necessarily earned its crown yet.

Enochian Chess vs Bughouse

Bughouse and Enochian chess are both chess played by partnerships, and both refuse to treat a captured piece as simply gone.

The Fire Board

One game, one board. The Fire board is the hottest of the four elemental designs, and it sets the pace of a game before a single piece has moved.

The Water Board

One of the four elemental boards, and the home ground of the receptive side.

The Air Board

One of the four elemental boards, gold and quick, where Air takes the first move and carries the active alliance's attack sideways when a straight...

The Earth Board

One of the four elemental designs, the Earth board belongs to the receptive alliance and carries the steadiest temperament of the set. Here is...

How the Pieces Move

Six pieces, and only two of them behave differently from the chess you already know.

The Knight

The Knight is the one piece the game left almost untouched.

The Bishop

Of the four major pieces, the Bishop is the one that behaves most like the chess you already know.

The Rook

Of all the pieces, the Rook is the one you already know.

Check in Enochian Chess

A King can be attacked here, but he can never be mated.

Draws in Enochian Chess

Most games end with two enemy Kings taken.

The Rescue Capture

A King in danger has one escape no other chess offers: his own ally can take him off the board and keep the army fighting.

Throne Seizure and Reawakening a Frozen Army

A King who sits his ally's throne takes command of that army, and if the army had frozen to stone, the same step brings it back to life. This is...

The Eight Settings

Before a single piece moves, the setting has already been chosen.

Turn Order in Enochian Chess

Four armies sit at the corners, so the game cannot simply alternate the way ordinary chess does.

How to Set Up an Enochian Chess Board

Four armies, one board, and a starting position that looks strange until you learn its five simple steps.

The Zodiac on the Enochian Chessboard

Each square holds a sign of the zodiac. That single fact turns a chess move into a step through the wheel, and it is one reason a finished...

The Tarot Trumps on the Enochian Board

The court cards ride the pieces. The Major Arcana sit on the squares. That second layer is where a game gets most of its color as a reading.

The Hebrew Letters on the Enochian Chessboard

Under the pieces, each square holds a small stack of symbols.

Geomancy and the Enochian Chessboard

Every square on an Enochian board carries several divinatory marks at once.

The Astrological Houses on the Board

The twelve houses of astrology sit quietly under the game.

Reading the Final Position as an Oracle

When the last King falls, the board stops being a fight and becomes a picture.

The Speaking Board

Most oracles ask you to stop and interpret afterward.

The Golden Dawn and Its Chess

A late 19th-century magical society built a four-cornered elemental chess for its advanced students.

The Enochian Tablets

The four chessboards did not come from nowhere.

Edward Kelley and the Scried Tablets

The game is named for a system Edward Kelley helped record with John Dee in the 1580s.

Israel Regardie and the Papers That Saved the Game

Enochian chess was a private instrument of a secret order.

The Enochian Language Behind the Board

The game is named for a language, not for a way of playing.

MacGregor Mathers and the Shape of the Game

Enochian chess did not fall out of the sky.

Enochian Chess and the Art of Scrying

Long before there was a board, there was a person gazing into a crystal and reading meaning out of what appeared.

Enochian Chess vs Chaturaji

Both games put four armies at the four corners of a single board.

Enochian Chess and Chaturanga, the Root of Chess

Every chessboard traces back to one ancient Indian game.

Enochian Chess vs Shogi

Both games refuse to let a captured piece simply vanish.

Enochian Chess vs Xiangqi

Two very different chess families, both far from the board most people grew up with.

Occult Chess

For as long as people have moved pieces across a board, some have used that board to think about more than winning.

Elemental Chess

Plenty of games call themselves elemental.

Tactics of the Leaping Queen

Knowing the Queen leaps two squares is one thing.

Endgames

No checkmate ever ends this game. The finish is a hunt across a thinning board where fallen armies stand frozen as terrain and one last King has...

Playing as a Team

You do not command an army in Enochian chess.

Defending Your King

There is no checkmate to warn you, and there is no coming back once your King is taken by an enemy.

Sacrifice and Tempo

Giving up a piece is not always a loss. In a four-army game, material buys two things worth more than itself: a King out of danger, and a free...

How Do You Win at Enochian Chess?

No checkmate here. You win by capturing both enemy Kings, and here is exactly how.

Play Enochian Chess Online, Free

Solo against the computer or live with 2 to 4 players, in the browser, no download.

Enochian Chess FAQ

Every common question answered, from who invented it to where you can play.

Frozen Armies: When a King Falls

The signature mechanic. A captured King freezes his whole army into inert terrain.

The King: Thrones, Rescue, Command

He is the whole game. Thrones, the rescue capture, and taking command of an ally.

Pawns and Promotion

Delayed promotion, throne promotion, and the privileged last pawn that may choose.

The Knight, Bishop, and Rook

Ordinary moves, different lives: frozen walls, throne partners, and tarot courts.

The Concourse Rule

When all four Queens meet on one marked block, the mover takes both enemies at once.

Opening Moves

Freeing the doubled King, leaping the Queen out early, and timing with your ally.

The Egyptian God-Forms

Every piece carries an Egyptian god-form in the Golden Dawn papers. The full table.

The Astrology Inside the Board

Every square holds a sign and a house, so a move is also travel through the sky.

Rosicrucian Chess: The Other Name

Rosicrucian chess and Enochian chess are the same game. Why it carries both names.

John Dee and the Chessboard

Why the game bears the name of a magician who never played it.

Can You Play with Two Players?

Four armies, two people. How one player runs a whole elemental alliance.

The Enochian Chess Set

What a full set consists of, why physical sets are rare, and the free way to play today.

Is Enochian Chess Hard to Learn?

Honestly, how hard is it? Easy moves, with a few genuinely new ideas.

The Concourse of the Forces

The Golden Dawn idea of the four elemental powers meeting on one board.

Enochian Chess Strategy

How to open, how to use the leaping Queen, and why protecting your King matters more here than in chess.

The Enochian Chess Board Explained

The grid, the four elemental colors, and why every square is a small pyramid whose faces carry its meaning.

Enochian Chess and the Tarot

The four suits map to the four elements, and each piece answers to a court card. How the cards meet the board.

How to Play Enochian Chess Solo

You do not need three other people. Command one element against the machine at Novice, Adept, or Magus strength.

Enochian Chess and Other Four-Player Chess

Where it sits among four-player chess games, from ancient Chaturaji to modern online four-player chess.

Enochian Chess for Beginners

What to expect, the three rules that differ most from chess, and a simple plan for your first solo game.

The Enochian Chess Queen, Explained

She leaps two squares and jumps over anything between. Why the Queen trips up chess players, and how to use her.

The Four Elements of Enochian Chess

Fire, Water, Air, and Earth: what each element means, and how the two alliances line up across the board.

How Enochian Chess Divination Works

What each square carries, how the Speaking Board reads moves live, and how a finished game becomes one reading.

Enochian Chess vs Regular Chess: 7 Differences

Four players, a leaping Queen, and a win that is not checkmate. What changes when you move from the familiar board to the elemental one.

What Is Enochian Chess?

The complete introduction: boards, pieces, how you win, and the board that reads as an oracle.

How to Play Enochian Chess

The full rules for beginners, from setup to the King-capture win, with the special moves worth knowing.

The History of Enochian Chess

How the Golden Dawn built a four-handed elemental chess to teach its correspondences, and how the game survives today.