How to Play Enochian Chess

Enochian chess plays like chess reworked for four. If you have moved a pawn before, you already know most of it. The parts that are new are the setup, the turn order around four corners, one unusual piece, and the way you actually win. Read this once and you will be ready for a full game.

Setting up: boards, armies, and alliances

Before anything moves, you choose one of the four elemental boards: Fire, Water, Air, or Earth. The chosen board decides which army takes the first move and which colors lead the squares. Full detail lives on the boards page.

Four armies sit at the four corners, each commanding one element from its own throne. They are locked into two alliances that never change: Water with Earth, and Air with Fire. Your ally sits at the corner next to you. You share the win and you cannot capture each other. You can play all four seats with four people, run one whole alliance yourself against another player, or take a single seat against three computer armies at Novice, Adept, or Magus strength.

Turn order and how pieces move

Play rotates around the board, one army at a time, in a fixed direction set by the board. On your turn you move one piece. Five of the six pieces move exactly as they do in ordinary chess. The Bishop slides on diagonals, the Rook slides on ranks and files, the Knight makes its L-shaped leap, the King steps one square, and the Pawn steps forward and captures on its forward diagonals.

The Queen is the one to learn. She does not sweep the board like a chess queen. She leaps to the second square in any of the eight directions and jumps over whatever sits between, which makes her sharp on a crowded board and easy to underestimate. See every piece, its promotion rules, and its god-form on the pieces page.

How you win: capture the Kings

Here is the rule that sets Enochian chess apart. There is no checkmate. You win by capturing Kings. Take an enemy King and his army does not leave the board. It freezes. The frozen pieces stay where they stand, blocking lines and holding squares, but they cannot move and cannot be moved, and they no longer give check. Since the board holds two alliances, the win belongs to a team: an alliance wins the instant both opposing Kings have fallen.

Because a King is captured rather than mated, checks work a little differently. When your King is attacked and a safe escape exists, you must use it. When there is no safe square, the game lets you meet the threat another way, or accept the risk, rather than ending on the spot. Play a few turns and this becomes second nature.

The special moves worth knowing

• Rescue. When an ally's King is in danger, one of your own pieces can sometimes capture it into safe keeping, so the army fights on under your command instead of freezing.
• Exchange of prisoners. If each side holds a captured King, the two alliances can agree to restore both Kings to their thrones and wake their armies.
• Seizing a throne. A commander whose ally has frozen can take the empty throne and wake that army, moving it alongside their own.
• Promotion. A Pawn that reaches its far edge is promoted, with its own timing rules that can hold a Pawn waiting at the edge until the army loses its first Pawn.
• Concourse. Certain arrangements of pieces gather a special guidance the game tracks and the board reads.

What comes next

Once the moves feel natural, there is a second layer waiting. Every square you touch carries a meaning, and the game can be read as a divination as you play. Start with what Enochian chess is for the whole picture, then explore the divinatory side when you are ready.

Rules FAQ

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