Chess Variant Tips: Atomic Part 1

Hi everyone! If you have been reading my blogs for a while, you will know I created a series called "Chess Tips" where I tell you different strategies you can use in your own games. However, this is a new series called "Chess Variant Tips", suggested by @Chinese_Person! A huge thank you to him! In this blog, I will teach the rules of Atomic chess.

Rules:

1. Captures and explosions.

In atomic chess, whenever you capture a piece, a explosion happens. The explosion kills all of the pieces in range EXCEPT the pawns. Different from regular chess, every piece is suicidal. Even the capturing piece has to be taken off the board when taking another piece. So you better think twice in Atomic Chess when you saw a queen can take a free, hanging knight.

2. Threats to the King

Because of the explosion tactic, the game can end when one of the king is blowed up. Take a look in the example below.

Another important thing to remember is blowing up the enemy king is the first priorty. Therefore, even if you are in check, you can still blow up the enemy king. Let's look at the example below.

3. Special king rule

Since king safety is first priority, it can not capture other pieces. That means the king can't capture other pieces because of the exploding rule.  Another surprising thing is since the king can't capture anything, they can go next to each other. Sometimes, there will be weird checkmates as well. Let's take a look.

4. Stalemates and draws

Yes. There is a stalemate in Atomic even though it is pretty rare. A stalemate happens if there are no threats against one of the kings and no more moves to play. Here is an example.

That is all for this blog. If you read the title carefully, you will remember it only said "Part 1" I believe you know what this means: there will be a part 2. It will be about all the opening traps I know for both sides. So stay tune and feel free to comment as well! Also, pls do click here to view my other blogs! Now I hope you have a great day and bye!