Losing Chess is an old chess variant that helps you to visualize attacks and threats and to improve your control of the chessboard.
The origins of Losing Chess go back a long way.
A known version, called Take Me, was played in the 1870s, while nowadays this variant is more known as Losing Chess, Suicide Chess or Antichess.
It’s an easy, surprising and fun game: as its names show, the objective is to lose all your pieces or to get stalemated.
Losing Chess Rules
All the standard chess rules apply in Losing Chess, which means pieces move and capture similar to as in standard chess.
There are some exceptions though:
- Capturing is compulsory. When a legal capture is present for the player with the turn, they must take (to play any captures). This includes capturing en passant
- A player is free to choose between alternative captures
- There is no check or checkmate. The king behaves like any other piece. It cannot castle. It can be put into checks. It can be captured. If you lose it, you just keep playing
- A pawn may promote to a King
- The winner is who loses all her pieces first
- You also win if you can’t legally move (there is no stalemate)
That’s it! Losing Chess is another easy chess variant but it’s also a very strategic game which is a lot more complex than it apparently seems when you play the first matches.
Tip: in Losing Chess, pawns are usually weak pieces which you should try to get rid of as soon as possible.
You can play Losing Chess online on platforms such as Lichess.
