Claustrophobia 2: Ninjutsu

Ninjutsu - a collection of techniques originally practiced for espionage purposes.
Claustrophobia 2: Ninjutsu: - a collection of techniques used with the intent of capturing the scepter, or to capture and behead the enemy king.

Key Concepts

The ninja warrior - This piece is complimentary to the ninja guard and performs the same type of moves except it does so in an orthogonal fashion.

The insane ninja knight combines the power of the knight, the ninja guard and ninja warrior. Truly an insane piece!

This game centers on some key strategy concepts in addition to the usual checkmate of the opposing king. An alternative objective is to invade the palace of the opposing king and capture the scepter. White's palace is on f1, f2, g2 and black's is on f8,f7,g7. If the opposing king enters your palace, you have lost the game.

In claustrophobia 2, the palace plays another important role: it allows either piece: the ninja guard or the ninja warrior to promote to a more powerful piece never seen on the board: the insane ninja knight. Pawns too can promote to an insane ninja knight.

So enter this deadly sport of Ninjutsu, and keep your head on!

Board Setup

The standard chess pieces can be used to represent the new pieces.
Queen=Queen-Guard
Bishop=Ninja Guard
Rook=Ninja Warrior

Start Position for white. (black mirrors white) Ninja Warrriors on a1, b1 Knights on c1,g2 Ninja Guards on d1, e1 Queen Guard on f2 King on f1

Rules

The rules are as in orthodox chess except as noted below:

• There is no castling as the king is already in its palace where it is normally safe.
• In addition to checkmate, a side can also win by capturing the opposing king's scepter. Black's scepter is in the palace on f8,f7,or g7 and white's scepter on f1,f2,or g2.
  Only the king can capture a scepter, so for example,if the white king marches towards the black king's palace, black can use this opportunity to checkmate, or drive the white king away and march the black king towards the opposing palace.
• The unused squares do not hinder the movement of any pieces.
• The ninja guard or the ninja warrior promote to the most powerful piece on the board: the Insane Ninja Knight by landing on the opposite side's palace. E.g white can promote ninja piece to insane ninja knight by landing it on f8,f7,or g7
• Pawns promote on the last rank to Insane Ninja Knight, Queen Guard, Ninja Warrior, Ninja Guard, or Knight.
• All rules governing draws including stalemate are exactly as in orthodox chess

The Ninja Guard’s Moves

The Ninja Guard is a color bound piece that can move one or two steps diagonally. It can leap over a diagonally adjacent friendly piece to land exactly 2 squares away (a two-space diagonal leap). It can capture on any square it lands, and additionally it can can capture an enemy piece that is diagonally adjacent by jumping over it. It can capture two pieces (the first immediately adjacent to it, and the next right after) in its path on a diagonal by jumping over the first one and capturing the second piece on the square it lands.

The Ninja Guard on c4 can capture all the pieces in the diagram. It can capture the pawn on a6 by jumping over the knight at b5. It can capture the pawn on b3 by moving to b3 or by jumping over the pawn and landing on a2. It can capture the knight on d5 by moving to d5 or it can capture both the knight and the pawn by jumping over to e6.

The Ninja Warrior’s Moves

The Ninja Warrior can move one or two steps orthoganally. It can leap over a friendly piece to land exactly 2 squares away (a two-space orthogonal leap). It can capture on any square it lands, and additionally it can can capture a piece right next to it by jumping over it. It can capture two pieces (the first immediately adjacent to it, and the next right after) in its orthogonal path by jumping over the first one and capturing the second piece on the square it lands.

The Ninja Warrior on d4 can capture all the pieces in the diagram. It can capture the pawn on d6 by jumping over the knight at d5. It can capture the pawn on d3 by moving to d3 or by jumping over the pawn and landing on d2. It can capture the knight on c4 by moving to c4 or it can capture both the knight and the pawn by jumping over to b4.

The Extra-mobile sliding pawn

The pawn moves and captures exactly as in orthodox chess except for the following. Normally, when a pawn faces an opposing pawn or an enemy piece, the pawn is blocked. However, the sliding pawn can, under these circumstances only if it is blocked, slide pass the enemy piece or pawn with the same 1-step diagonal movement that it would make when capturing.

The Queen Guard

The Queen Guard moves exactly like the King, 1 step orthogonally or diagonally.

The Insane Ninja Knight

This piece is the ultimate goal of Ninjutsu. It combines the powers of the knight, ninja guard and ninja warrior.
For more info on this piece see Asylum Chess

Notes on strategy

• A king and a lone ninja guard or warrior can easily checkmate a king since the ninja just has to promote to an insane ninja knight.
• A knight cannot deliver mate but can succeed with the help of the king and with a timely sacrifice divert the opposing king away from the palace.
• All the pieces in this game: the Queen Guard, Ninja Guard,knight,ninjar warrior and king each control 8 squares. Thus, their relative values are quite close though the promotional capabilities make the ninja pieces more valuable.
• A Queen-Guard with the help of a king can mate and/or pry the opposing king out of the palace.

Play a game of Ninjutsu!