Knightmare Chess

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Knightmare Chess 2 cover art.

The card called Demotion.

Knightmare Chess is a fantasy chess variant published by Steve Jackson Games in 1996. It is a translation of a French game Tempête sur l'échiquier ("Storm on the Chessboard"), designed by Pierre Cléquin and Bruno Faidutti.

Knightmare Chess is played with cards that change the default rules of chess. The cards might change how a piece moves, move opponent's pieces, create special squares on the board or do something even wilder. For example, a card called Demotion says:

Replace one of your opponent's pieces (except a King or Queen) with one of his captured Pawns.

Play this card on your turn, instead of making a regular move.

There are two sets of cards sold separately, both consisting of 80 cards. The sets are known as Knightmare Chess 1 (ISBN 1-55634-332-9) and Knightmare Chess 2 (ISBN 1-55634-348-5) but there's nothing at all to prevent one from just shuffling both decks into one 160 card deck.

The graphics in the English version of the Knightmare Chess cards are dark fantasy style, nightmarish (hence the pun Knightmare) color paintings by Brazilian artist Rogerio Vilela. The French original version had a cartoonish tone, unlike the English version, and the cards in the French original version are also different from the English version.