How to play Hidden Identity Chess

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

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RULES:
The rules are the same as regular chess except for these changes. There is no check or checkmate. The object of the game is to capture your opponent’s king. Each piece is replaced by a special chess piece whose identity can only be seen on 1 side. During set up, each player places their pieces however they want on their closest 2 rows, with their pieces identities facing them, hidden from their opponent. There is no restriction to where pieces can be placed. Pawns are allowed to be placed on the first row and bishops can be placed on the same color.

Whenever a piece is captured, its identity is revealed.

Pawns on the first row are allowed an initial double-step move if you want. If a pawn moves to its second row, it can still perform its double step move. En passant is allowed like normal against an opponent’s pawn taking a double-step from either row, however, if the opponent’s piece being captured isn’t a pawn then the pawn preforming the move is removed from the board instead. When performing en passant, announce what you are doing, but leave the identity of the piece you are trying to capture hidden. Your opponent then says if it is a pawn, if it isn’t, then the pieces identity remains hidden. The king is allowed to move to a threatened space.

Castling is allowed if the rook is on the same row as the king and there are no other pieces in between. To castle, move the king 2 spaces towards the rook, then move the rook to the other side of the king. If a rook is 2 spaces away, or adjacent to the king, then the king takes the space of the rook and the rook is moved to the other side. You may only castle if it is the King and Rook’s first move of the game.

If ever a piece is moved illegally, or discovered to have move illegally in the past, then the illegally moved piece is removed from the board and the opponent of that piece also removes any single enemy piece of their choice from the board as a penalty. If the illegally moved piece was already removed from the board when discovered, then the opponent removes 2 pieces of their choice instead of 1. If the removed piece was the king, then they win the game immediately. If a player performs more than 1 illegal move in a game, then they immediately lose.

The first player to capture their opponent’s king, wins!

You can also play with the revealed kings variant. At the start of the game, use a divider when setting up the pieces and play with a normal king. Remove the divider to begin play, both players will now play the game with knowledge of the enemy king’s location. If your opponent performs an illegal move, then instead of removing pieces, you win the game immediately.

%1$ Comments229

    There is a game that's just like this, its called Game of the Generals or GOG

    noooooo that move is illegal!!!!! remove the piece!!!!!!!!!! you have to!!!!!!!!!!

    isnt this just games of the general but a bit different

    Having a rule other than "you lose" after making an ilegal move, incentivizes the players to make ilegal moves until caught once

    Hidden identity chess: But actually you can only do one illigal move per game. Sorry but at that point i rather just play regular chess. If it was "You can only capture with an illegal move once per game" then okay, that makes sense

    Is it okay to make illegal moves on purpose or only as a mistake and otherwise it would be considered cheating?

    So that one game Stratego?
    Thanks for remaking a game but in a worse way.

    I feel like giving a second chance for illegal moves can make it more interesting. You can do an illegal move to throw your opponent off temporarily, or to capture a problematic piece (assuming their piece won’t be returned if, for example, you move a pawn like a knight to capture something).

    This is like game of the generals but with chess

    There's a similar game called Games of the Generals

    Games of the general x Chess crossover

    Kid: Mom can we get Stratego
    Mom: no we have Stratego at home
    Stratego at home:

    so, an assassination on a government official, accurate.

    is the king allowed to castle upwards if the pieces are agasent

    I’m glad the set up is different. I was thinking “man this would be essentally pointless for grandmasters seeing most of them memorize the board anyway.”

    If you want to play a game similar to this there is a board game called Stratego

    The "Place a mirror behind your opponent to see their pieces" meme is actually real now

    This is cool and all but how would we get those pieces?

    Misread as "hidden identity crisis" severely disappointed

    For a moment i though it was named "Identity Crysis Chess"

    This is like the game "Stratego", but in that game you have attack stats on the board for each piece

    Should rename this varient to mexican on the border- chess

    This is the only variation you might not want to castle in.

    So, to clarify: If you've discovered which piece is the enemy king, you can make illegal move with your pawn as if it was knight or queen and win without taking a penalty?

    "The rules are the same as regular chess, except that they're completely different."

    Trying to take the elements of Stratego and putting them into chess looks good on paper but in practice doesn't work too well. Of course castling would be extremely bad and the knights are going to be the first known piece due to the only piece with a unique move of L. I think that if you pay enough attention to the moves. You will be able to deduce which piece is which.

    it’s no longer a perfect information game. Knight is the only piece that have a unique move because you can move a rook, queen, king, bishop and pawn like each other (move queen, rook and bishop like a pawn with 1 square movement).

    This would be incredibly cool because if they captured the king i could flip it and say ''wrong move :)'' then checkmate their king

    But who would know if the opponent did an illegal move?
    How would i know?

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