Apocalypse - chess variant

Apocalypse is a chess variant invented by C. S. Elliott in 1976. The players each start with two horsemen and five footmen on a 5x5 board. The two sides make their moves simultaneously.

The game was featured in Issue 53 of Games & Puzzles magazine.

Game rules

The starting setup is as shown. Horsemen and footmen move and capture the same as knights and pawns in chess, except footmen do not have a double-step option on their first move. For each turn, each player secretly writes down his move, then the players simultaneously declare them. The following rules apply:

• If they moved to the same square, a horseman captures a footman. Same-type pieces are both removed from the board.
• If a capture was declared using a footman, but the piece to be captured moved from its square, the footman move still stands. (The move converts to a diagonal step instead of a capture.)
• If a declared move is illegal, the player incurs a penalty point.

A footman promotes to horseman when reaching the last rank, but only when the player has less than two horsemen. Otherwise the player must redeploy the footman to any vacant square.

End of game

A player wins by being first to eliminate all of the opponent's footmen. Accumulating two penalty points forfeits the game. A stalemate is a draw.

Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (V. Vasnetsov, 1887)