Martian Chess

1. Click Start a game on the home page. You get a private link — no account needed.
2. Send the link to your opponent. The first person to open it takes the other seat; anyone after that watches as a spectator.
3. Moves sync live. On your turn, tap one of your pieces, then tap a highlighted square. You can close the tab and come back — the same browser reclaims your seat automatically.
4. Who moves first is chosen at random. After a rematch, sides swap and the other player moves first.

You don't own pieces — you own territory. The board is split in half by the glowing canal. Every piece on your side of the canal is yours, no matter where it started. Move a piece across the canal and it becomes your opponent's.

You score by capturing pieces. When the game ends, the higher score wins — position means nothing, points mean everything.

Each side starts with nine pyramids arranged in a 3×3 block: 3 Queens (large, 3 points), 3 Drones (medium, 2 points), and 3 Pawns (small, 1 point). Queens sit in the corner, pawns opposite them. On this site a piece is drawn with as many tiers as it is worth — count the segments and you know its value.

• Pawn (1 pip) — exactly one square diagonally, in any direction (backwards is fine).
• Drone (2 pips) — one or two squares horizontally or vertically, in a straight line. Never diagonally.
• Queen (3 pips) — any distance in any straight line, like a chess queen.

No piece may ever jump over another. You must move a piece on your turn — passing is not allowed.

Move one of your pieces onto an occupied square on your opponent's side and you capture that piece — any piece can capture any piece. The captured piece leaves the board and its point value (1, 2, or 3) is added to your score. Your capturing piece stays where it landed… which means it crossed the canal, so it now belongs to your opponent. Every capture is a trade.

Capturing is never mandatory.

Landing on your own pieces is normally illegal, with one exception — merging:

• If you have no Queens on your side: move a Drone onto one of your Pawns (or a Pawn onto a Drone) and they merge into a Queen.
• If you have no Drones on your side: move a Pawn onto another of your Pawns to merge into a Drone.

Merging uses the piece's normal move and scores no points.

If your opponent just moved a piece across the canal to you, you can't immediately move that piece straight back to the square it came from. Any other move is fine, and the restriction lasts only one turn.

The game ends the instant either side of the board is empty. Down to one piece? Moving your last piece across the canal ends the game on the spot — a legitimate and often decisive tactic.

Highest score wins. If the score is tied, the player who ended the game wins the tie.

If the game feels deadlocked, either player may call the clock on their turn. From then on, if seven consecutive moves pass without a capture, the game ends and scores are compared (a capture resets the count). A tie after the clock is a genuine draw.

House rule for the edge case: if a player has no legal move at all, the game ends immediately and scores are compared.