Martian Chessis a 2-4 player game that usesIcehouse pieces, requiring one stash per player, and a chessboard. It was one of the games included inIcehouse: The Martian Chess SetandPyramid Arcade.

Much like its namesake,Martian Chessis a game of capturing pieces. Like Chess,Martian Chessis turn based, and played on a chessboard. In both games, players move and capture individual pieces, and each type of piece has distinct moving rules.

However,Martian Chessdiffers from Chess in critical ways:

• Piece ownership is determined not by color but by location.
• Instead of capturing a specific piece, winning is determined by points, making it possible to force the end of the game and still win with no pieces left in that player’s control.
• Lastly,Martian Chesseasily supports 4 players as well as two, and can also be played with 3, 5 or 6 players if you use geomorphic chessboard sections; seethis photofor an example.