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Life & fun · May 23, 2026

Shattered Chess

A chess variant where captures crack and collapse the board

What it does

Shattered Chess is a new chess variant where the board itself becomes part of the strategy. Captures crack squares, repeated damage can turn them into Abysses, and those gaps change how pieces move and attack. Rooks, bishops, and queens must navigate around collapsed terrain, while knights can leap over it. Castling, en passant, and promotion still work.

Does the same job

all alternatives →
  • IM
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    Truncate is a chess flavoured word game that blends spatial reasoning and wordplay. In puzzle mode, you beat back your NPC opponent's words and take over their territory. Truncate started as a pen and paper game between a friend and I, evolved into a handmade board game, and finally arrived at an online puzzle game. Like any good word game, there is of course a daily mode, shareable with the tried and true grid of emojis We've been playtesting it with friends and family for a few months, which has helped iron out the tutorials and gameplay, and we're finally happy with an MVP worth sharing!…

  • LA
    Laser, a new game played on a chess board2023 · playlaser.xyz · ▲218

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  • CT
    Chess Twist2024 · polyreplay.com · ▲29

    I continue my experiment of transposing classic games onto an irregular grid. I've previously released variants of minesweeper and checkers. And now I'd like to share my variant of Chess. Chess can be a pretty punishing game, but I thought this was nevertheless a way to make it even more challenging by making it trickier to anticipate your opponent, even though both players still have the same information. From the playtests I've done, that challenge is pretty compelling. It also seems to be more fun at 2 people, where both players keep surprising one another.

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