Description Chess Gold - A strategic twist on chess where both players start with only a king and must spend gold to recruit pieces onto the board, earning gold back by capturing the opponent's army.
Start with only a king on the back rank respective to your color. You also start with 3 gold in your inventory. It is an 8x8 board with checkered squares.
This tight starting economy is intentional. Both players must make sharp decisions about when and what to buy with limited gold. Capturing enemy pieces and passive income are the primary ways to grow your treasury.
Each player earns +1 gold per turn (received at the start of your turn).
- Move a piece that's already on the board (free)
- Place a new piece from the shop onto the board (costs gold, uses your turn)
| Piece | Cost to Place |
|---|---|
| Pawn | 1 gold |
| Bishop | 3 gold |
| Knight | 3 gold |
| Rook | 5 gold |
| Queen | 8 gold |
- You may place a piece on any unoccupied square within the first 3 rows on your side of the board.
- Pawns may only be placed on rows 2–3 (not the back rank, where they would be immobile).
- Placed pawns on row 2 do get the standard 2-square first move option.
- En passant applies normally.
- Placing a piece uses your entire turn but can be used to block check.
When a pawn reaches the opposite back rank, you may promote it to any piece (bishop, knight, rook, or queen) by paying 1 gold. If you cannot afford the promotion, the pawn remains on the last rank until you can.
Gold values use 0.5 increments (fractional gold is allowed).
When you capture an opponent's piece, you receive half its cost:
| Piece Captured | Gold Earned |
|---|---|
| Pawn | 0.5 gold |
| Bishop | 1.5 gold |
| Knight | 1.5 gold |
| Rook | 2.5 gold |
| Queen | 4 gold |
Checkmate the opponent's king. Standard chess rules for check, checkmate, and stalemate apply.
Same rules as Chess Gold, with loot boxes added.
Every 3–5 rounds, a loot box spawns on a random unoccupied square on the board.
To claim a loot box, a piece must move to an adjacent square as its turn action. This counts as one "hit." After 3 hits (from either or both sides), the box opens and the last player to hit it claims the contents. Queens open boxes in one hit.
- Hitting a loot box uses your turn.
- If all squares adjacent to a loot box are occupied, it cannot be hit until a square opens up.
- A hit does not move your piece onto the box's square — your piece stays on the adjacent square it moved to.
| Contents | Probability |
|---|---|
| 3 gold | 12.5% |
| 4 gold | 6.25% |
| 5 gold | 6.25% |
| 6 gold | 6.25% |
| Pawn | 18.75% |
| Bishop | 12.5% |
| Knight | 12.5% |
| Rook | 6.25% |
| Turtle Shell | 6.25% |
| Crossbow | 6.25% |
| Crown | 6.24% |
| King | 0.01% |
- Piece rewards go directly into your inventory and can be placed on a future turn (following normal placement rules, but for free since they were looted — not purchased).
- Gold rewards are added to your treasury immediately.
- Item rewards go into your inventory for later use.
Items can be equipped to your pieces and do not use up your turn to apply. Equipping costs gold.
| Item | Effect | Equip Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Crossbow | +1 piercing — the piece can capture an additional piece in the same move along its line of attack | 2 gold |
| Turtle Shell | +1 hit to capture — an opponent must capture this piece twice to remove it (also blocks one piercing hit) | 2 gold |
| Crown | Transform the equipped piece into any piece except a king | 3.5 gold |
Anything goes. The only rule: you can only take or move 1 piece per turn. All other restrictions (placement zones, pricing, gold economy) are removed.
Note: This mode needs further definition before implementation. What is the starting gold? Are pieces free to place anywhere? What is the win condition? Clarify before building.
Like normal chess (standard starting positions, no gold economy), except:
- When you capture an opponent's piece, it changes to your color and becomes yours (placed where the capture happened).
- Win condition: All pieces on the board are your color.
Same rules as Chess Gold (gamemode 1), with these additions:
- When you capture a piece, it changes to your color (like Conqueror).
- Win condition: All opponent pieces (including placed ones) are converted to your color.
- You may only place a piece (spend gold) on every other turn to prevent spam stalemates.
Menu similar to lichess.org:
- Rated and casual games
- Bot opponents
- Random pairing
- Lobbies
- Elo rating system (increases/decreases with wins and losses)
| Phase | Scope |
|---|---|
| MVP | Gamemode 1 (Chess Gold) — local 2-player pass-and-pay on one board |
| v0.2 | UI/UX improvements, tutorial/rules screen, sound |
| v0.3 | Deploy as a web app — playable in browser, shareable link, still local 2-player |
| v0.4 | Online 2-player — real-time multiplayer via WebSockets, basic matchmaking |
| v0.5 | Simple bot opponent — basic heuristic AI (not strong, just functional) for solo play |
| v0.6 | Gamemode 4 (Conqueror) — simplest variant to add |
| v0.7 | Gamemode 2 (Loot Boxes) — adds items and RNG layer |
| v1.0 | Lobbies, Elo, rated/casual games - full online platform |
| v1.1 | remaining gamemodes (3, 5) |
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