Apocalypse is a

chess variant A chess variant is a game related to, derived from, or inspired by chess. Such variants can differ from chess in many different ways. "International" or "Western" chess itself is one of a family of games which have related origins and could be c ...

invented by C. S. Elliott in 1976. Each player starts with two ''horsemen'' and five ''footmen'' on a 5×5

board Board or Boards may refer to: Flat surface * Lumber, or other rigid material, milled or sawn flat ** Plank (wood) ** Cutting board ** Sounding board, of a musical instrument * Cardboard (paper product) * Paperboard * Fiberboard ** Hardboa ...

. The two sides make their moves simultaneously. The game was featured in Issue 53 of ''

Games & Puzzles ''Games & Puzzles'' was a magazine about games and puzzles. The magazine was first published in May 1972 by Edu-Games (UK) Ltd. The first editor was Graeme Levin who recruited a variety of games and puzzles experts as writers and consultant editor ...

'' magazine. The name ''Apocalypse'' is a reference to the

Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse are figures in the Christian scriptures, first appearing in the Book of Revelation, a piece of apocalypse literature written by John of Patmos. Revelation 6 tells of a book or scroll in God's right hand ...

Game rules

The starting setup is as shown. Horsemen and footmen move the same as

knights A knight is a person granted an honorary title of knighthood by a head of state (including the Pope) or representative for service to the monarch, the church or the country, especially in a military capacity. Knighthood finds origins in the G ...

and pawns respectively do in

chess Chess is a board game for two players, called White and Black, each controlling an army of chess pieces in their color, with the objective to checkmate the opponent's king. It is sometimes called international chess or Western chess to dist ...

, except footmen do not have a double-step option on their first move. For each turn, each player secretly writes down their move, then the players simultaneously declare them. The following rules apply: * If each player moves a piece to the same square, a horseman captures a footman. Same-type pieces are removed from the board. * If a capture is declared using a footman, but the piece to be captured moves from its square, the footman move still stands. The move converts to being a diagonal step instead of a capture. * If a declared move is illegal, the player loses their turn and incurs a penalty point. Upon reaching the farthest , a footman is promoted to a horseman when the player has fewer than two horsemen. Otherwise, the player must redeploy the footman to any vacant square not on the farthest rank; the square to which the footman is redeployed must be written as part of that footman's move. It is illegal for a player to advance their only footman to the last rank while having fewer than two horsemen.

End of game

A player wins by having at least one footman while their opponent does not. Accumulating two penalty points forfeits the game. The game is drawn if each player loses their last footman at the same time. If both players have footmen remaining but at least one of the players has no legal moves, the game is a

draw Draw, drawing, draws, or drawn may refer to: Common uses * Draw (terrain), a terrain feature formed by two parallel ridges or spurs with low ground in between them * Drawing (manufacturing), a process where metal, glass, or plastic or anythin ...

(this is similar to the

stalemate Stalemate is a situation in the game of chess where the player whose turn it is to move is not in check and has no legal move. Stalemate results in a draw. During the endgame, stalemate is a resource that can enable the player with the inferi ...

rule).

References

Bibliography * *

External links

*
Apocalypse
a simple program by Ed Friedlander (

Java Java (; id, Jawa, ; jv, ꦗꦮ; su, ) is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea to the north. With a population of 151.6 million people, Java is the world's mo ...

) {{Chess variants, state=collapsed Chess variants 1976 in chess Board games introduced in 1976