Knightmare Chess

Knightmare Chess is a fantasy variant of chess published by Steve Jackson Games in 1996. It is the English-language edition of a French game, Tempête sur l'échiquier (Storm on the Chessboard), designed by Pierre Cléquin and Bruno Faidutti. Players play ordinary chess, but also use cards that change the default rules: a card may alter how a piece moves, move an opponent's pieces, create special squares or otherwise bend the game. Two separate 80-card sets, Knightmare Chess 1 and 2, can be shuffled together into one 160-card deck, and blank cards let players write their own. The English edition has dark fantasy paintings by the Brazilian artist Rogerio Vilela and adds a dueling deck variant in which each player builds a personal deck within an agreed point budget. Reviewers praised its artwork and its mix of strategic and chaotic play, though some found it a game to play only now and then.