Khan's Chess

Khan's Chess is an asymmetric game: the Kingdom (White) is the FIDE chess army, while the Horde (Black) is entirely mounted. Couch Tomato designed it in 2023-2024 as a rebalanced successor to Orda Chess, replacing its pawns and yurt with the scout and khatun.

The Horde's pieces occupy the squares of their chess counterparts: the lancers in the corners, the kheshigs next to them, then the archers, the khatun and the khan in the center. Its scouts start from the second rank rather than the first. The Kingdom always moves first.

The Horde

All Horde units move like a knight — the Mongol army was a cavalry army — but most do not capture where they move

Scout (S)

only, and it attacks only a single square, directly in front of it. This narrow attack makes it a much worse defender than the pawn — scouts cannot form chains — but it crosses the board twice as fast and therefore threatens to promote very early. Upon reaching the last rank, it must promote to a khatun.

Khatun (T)

The khatun moves like a knight and captures like a king. Although it occupies the queen's square, it is the weakest piece on the back rank, and is most effective in defense. (The khatun is the khan's wife.)

Mounted Archer (A)

The archer moves like a knight and captures diagonally like a bishop. Since it is not restricted to squares of one color — it can reach the entire board — it is worth more than the opposing bishop.

Kheshig / Centaur

The kheshig combines the knight and the king, and is the only Horde piece that captures exactly where it moves. It starts on the knight's square but is the strongest piece in the game, and the Horde generally keeps its kheshigs at home until the endgame: checkmating the khan while a kheshig is guarding it is very difficult. Kheshigs formed the imperial guard of Mongol royalty.

Lancer (L)

The lancer moves like a knight and captures along ranks and files like a rook. It is weaker than a rook, and increasingly so as the board empties, since it cannot cross the board in a single move — but it enters the game much earlier than a rook, which is the Horde's compensation.

Rules

1. The Kingdom (White) always moves first.
2. The only piece common to both armies is the king. The Horde's king is called the khan; the name and symbol differ purely for thematic reasons, and it plays exactly like a king.
3. The Horde cannot castle. The Kingdom castles as in chess.
4. Pawns promote to any piece, as in chess. Scouts promote only to khatuns.
5. Camp Checkmate: Capturing the opponent's camp by moving your own king (without being in check) onto the opposite rank immediately wins the game.
6. Stalemate is a loss for the player who can no longer move, rather than a draw as in chess.
7. Everything else, including repetition, is as in chess.

The two armies are roughly equal in strength: the Horde's pieces are individually awkward, but they develop faster and the kheshigs dominate the endgame.