Voltmate
Voltmate: Chess with one shared Battery
How to play Voltmate
Chess with one shared Battery
- Normal chess, and checkmate wins.
- Every capture and every check adds 1 charge to the Battery. It holds 3 and starts with 1.
- On your turn, instead of a move, you may spend charge on a power.FreezeAn enemy piece sits out 2 turnsLeapAny piece jumps like a KnightCrownA Pawn becomes a Queen
- The Battery is shared: charge you leave, your opponent can spend. In check you must move.
Small print
Freeze: an enemy piece other than the King cannot move or capture on their next two turns (so it gives no check), but it still blocks and can be taken. Leap: any piece but a Pawn or a Knight makes one Knight jump, and may capture any piece but the King. Crown: one of your Pawns becomes a Queen where it stands. A Pawn that reaches the last row becomes the piece you pick: a Queen, Rook, Bishop or Knight.
Castling and en passant work as in chess. You may never leave your King where an enemy piece could take it. No action may repeat a position for the third time. Stalemate, King and one minor piece against a King, and 100 moves each are draws.
On the board: dots are moves, rings are captures, violet marks are Leaps, a bolt and a number show the charge a move or a capture adds to the Battery, and ice pips count the turns a frozen piece sits out. A power works in either order: tap the piece, then the power, or the power, then a ringed piece (a Leap: then its violet square).
Voltmate puzzles
Piece set: cburnett by Colin M.L. Burnett (CC BY-SA 3.0).