How to play Musketeer Chess

Learn the rules to Musketeer Chess quickly and concisely – This video has no distractions, just the rules. For a refresher of the original Chess rules, check out this video:

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Play Musketeer Chess online here:

RULES:
The rules are the same as regular chess, except for these changes. Layout the 10 musketeer pieces and white picks one of them. Black may either accept or refuse that piece. If black refuses that piece, then the default pieces: Leopard and cannon will be used. If black accepts white’s pick, then black takes the same piece in their color then picks a second piece from the remaining options. White follows by taking black’s pick in their color. Layout the corresponding reference cards for the pieces picked to use during the game. Remove the remaining 8 sets of musketeers as they will not be used.

The board has 2 additional imaginary rows used for some temporary piece storage. Setup the board like normal then, beginning with white, players alternate placing the first musketeer white picked on an imaginary square on the row behind their rear rank pieces, then they place black’s picked piece. If the selection is the default pieces, then the cannon is placed first, followed by the leopard.

You are not allowed to place 1 musketeer behind the king and the other behind a rook. The musketeers may not share an imaginary square, nor may they move to a different imaginary space once placed. Once both musketeers are placed, the game begins like normal.

A Musketeer enter the game on the same turn when the square immediately in front of it is vacant. When that happens, move that musketeer to that square before your opponent goes. Musketeers may not be moved on the board before this happens. If the square in front of a musketeer is captured before that musketeer enters the game, then that musketeer is also captured and removed from the board. Once in play, Musketeers can be captured like normal. Pawns are allowed to promote to either musketeer used in the game. Musketeer moves can jump and/or slide. Jumping means it can pass over other pieces that are in the way, while sliding means it cannot pass through pieces. The new pieces are as follows:

The leopard combines the jumping moves of the knight and the sliding moves of the bishop but with a limited range of 2 squares.

The Cannon slides to any adjacent square, or it can jump 2 squares vertically or horizontally, or it can jump like a knight to the right or left.

The unicorn jumps like knight or jumps 3 squares in one direction then 1 square at a right angle.

The Dragon combines the jumping moves of a knight with the sliding moves of a queen.

The chancellor combines the jumping moves of a knight with the sliding moves of a rook.

The Archbishop combines the jumping moves of a knight with the sliding moves of a bishop.

The elephant slides to any adjacent square, or it can jump 2 squares horizontally, vertically, or diagonally.

The hawk jumps 2 or 3 squares horizontally, vertically, or diagonally.

The fortress slides up to 3 squares like a bishop, or it can jump like a knight forwards or backwards, or it can jump 2 squares horizontally or vertically. The tower top of the fortress is pegged so you can interchange the tops of the pieces if you want.

The spider slides up to 2 squares like a bishop, or it can jump like a knight in any direction, or it can jump 2 squares horizontally or vertically.

Check out the link in the description where you can play musketeer chess online to help you learn and practice using these new pieces.

35 Comments

  1. If you castle, do you gain access to bring your musketeer underneath your king to e1 or e8, or does it stay on the imaginary rank?

  2. 1:04 Black seted archbishop behind king, wich is not allowed.

  3. 2:55 The Dragon moves like my Quing, my chess piece. Quing moves like a Queen and jumps like a knight, but looks different.

  4. dragon has movie same like a amazon piece.

  5. What 's the point of the knight after this?

  6. > the same as regular chess, except for being completely different.

  7. what are the points for the 10 musketeer pieces?

  8. This is like Chess 2, and have Heroes like a MOBA game 😂

  9. The (3,1) move is a Camel's move if you did not know that

  10. My favorite piece it was the crow so good the new pieces very goodd

  11. I won (online ) and i was rewarded with a the opponents pawn sucking the d**k of my pawn😀

  12. "The rules are like regular chess, except for the pieces having muskets"

  13. The dragon is the most powerful one, it moves like a queen AND knight

  14. Cool but do the tops of the fortress and spider come off in the online version?

  15. Why is the dragon called the dragon? It does not look like a dragon.

  16. Those pieces are a bit too confusing for me. Not to learn necessarily, but to account for during a chess game would definitely increase the brain juices required to keep track of everything as it happens.

  17. leopard: arch bishop
    cannon: OP knight i guess
    unicorn: cannon(faerie chess) and knight combined
    dragon=amazon
    chancellor: knook
    archbishop(musketeer): the same thing
    elephant: basically queen but limited to 3 spaces and it jumps
    hawk: basically elephant but better
    fortress: confusing to learn its movement
    spider: basically archbishop but better

  18. 3:363:57 My favorite new chess is Fortress.
    So the Fortress is act like a transporting car.

  19. The link for musketeer chess is not there for us please I send it

  20. If the elephant moves 2 diagonal, then that’s a move from xiangqi rule

  21. The Reti opening is buffed when you have a musketeer behind the knight.

  22. Where chess set with the elephant, owl and Panther pieces?
    It looks very interesting and unique.

  23. I always thought the Dragon and Spider where called "the Dragoon, and the Spire"

  24. for Musketeer Chess you have to need to lean Betza's atomic notation for every pieces in the history chess to now for the variants

  25. Gasp! Oh noooooo! Queen + Knight = The Ultimate Weapon!

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