Board games
hostage chess
(Web published), 1997
hostage chess is a board game published by (Web published) in 1997. It is played with 2 players, from age 6 and in about 30 to 90 minutes.
- players
- 2
- minutes
- 30–90
- years
- 6+
This game’s rules aren’t on Marquoir yet: keep the ones from the box. Marquoir keeps score, times your games and records them.
The box
- Publisher
- (Web published)
- Designer
- John Leslie
- Year of release
- 1997
- Official website
- hostagechess.com
About the game
Hostage chess is a chess variant invented by John A. Leslie in 1997. Captured pieces are not eliminated from the game but can reenter active play through drops, similar to shogi. Unlike shogi, the piece a player may drop is one of their own pieces previously captured by the opponent. In exchange, the player returns a previously captured enemy piece which the opponent may drop on a future turn. This is the characteristic feature of the game.
Hostage chess has tactical subtlety and "tends to favour the attacker". In 1999, David Pritchard called the game "the variant of the decade". It was published in magazines Nost-algia (issue 375), Eteroscacco (86–88), and Variant Chess (32 and later). It was the "Recognized Variant of the Month" in January 2005 at The Chess Variant Pages.More from (Web published)
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Information from Marquoir’s game database, which cross-checks several open sources. Spotted a mistake? Write to us from the Contact page.