Wonderlandian Chess

Wonderlandian Chess is an Edenian team sport which has risen above its dark origins to challenge the beloved Wonderlandian Croquet as the most popular pastime in the United Kingdom. Conceived in the dark days of the Horde War as a form of capital punishment for prisoners of war, the sport was revived during the reign of Queen Frieda Jacobs as a far less deadly but no less intriguing contest of wits and wills.

Overview and Objective

The sport is based on the traditional board-game version of chess. It is played on a square field consisting of 64 squares arranged in an 8x8 grid. Two teams line up on opposite sides of the field, then attempt—through a series of moves and countermoves—to capture the opposing team’s king. The first to do so is the winner.

Rules and Regulations

Though the official handbook of the sport is some 120 pages long, the key rules and regulations are as follows:

• Each side shall consist of one king, one queen, two rooks, two bishops, two knights, and eight pawns.
• At the start of play, the side shall line up in two rows of eight. The front line shall be comprised of the eight pawns, while the rear shall be arranged in the following order (from left to right): rook, knight, bishop, queen, king, bishop, knight, rook.
• Teams will alternate turns, moving one player per turn. In league play, the home/host team shall move first. In non-league play, the first move shall be determined by coin toss.
• Each player shall move in accordance with the limits of their position, which are as follows
  • The king may move in any direction but only one square at a time—and only so long as the move would not open the king to attack.
  • The queen may move in any direction.
  • A rook may move in a straight line either forward, backward, or side-to-side.
  • A bishop may move diagonally in any direction.
  • A knight may move in an L-shape—and even leap over other players if necessary
  • A pawn may move forward one unoccupied square at a time—or an optional two squares on their first move
• In order to capture an occupied square, a player must defeat the opposing player in single combat.
• If a pawn is able to advance to its final rank, it may be promoted to a queen, rook, bishop, or knight.
• The team must use its turn to move the king out of harm’s way if the opposing team has used their move to open up a direct line of attack on the king.
• Play ends when the king is no longer able to avoid battle. At that point, the king may either lay down their sword or choose to fight. If the king chooses to fight and loses, they are retired for the season and the team must draft a new king. If the king chooses to fight and wins, the opposing player is retired for the season.

History

The sport was developed in Eden’s First Age, during the bloody Horde War. After Wonderland was occupied by the Monster Hordes, Stagnekad the Defiler conceived of the game as a way of disposing of his surplus of elven and human prisoners and entertaining his soldiers at the same time. In this early version of the sport, each round of single combat was a fight to the death. There was no yielding as there is in the modern game. And so, Stagnekad would line up his fiercest warriors on one side and sixteen prisoners on the other and he’d laugh as he watched his hated enemies beheaded, disemboweled, or worse.

At least that was the plan.

To Stagnekad’s dismay, his elven and human prisoners were far better at the game than expected. And so, soon enough, use of the sport as a form of capital punishment was abandoned. Then, after the prisoners began playing a non-lethal version as a form of amusement, the sport was banned altogether.

Wonderlandian Chess might have been forgotten altogether if not for the research of Albus Lepus during his tenure as the Sage of Saltgate. In 273, as part of the celebrations for the Tenth Anniversary of Queen Frieda Jacobs’ coronation, a one-off Wonderlandian Chess match led to renewed interest. Seen now as a symbol of Wonderlandian pride, a way of commemorating how their people had survived the Hordes’ occupation all those years ago, interest in Wonderlandian Chess spread like wildfire. Today, in fact, there is an eight-team league whose matches draw crowds from one corner of Wonderland to the other.

Major League Chess

Major League Chess is a professional Wonderlandian Chess league comprised of eight teams:

• Saltgate Heartbreakers
• Neverland Buccaneers
• Camelot Knights
• Watersmeet Outlaws
• Frankburg Falcons
• Highlands Beasts
• Frult Üft Pharaohs
• Yesterland Fighting Squirrels

The league is divided into two divisions, East and West, and each autumn the highest ranking team from each division meet at the Chessboard in the City of Hearts to determine the league champion.