Martian Chess is an abstract strategy game for two or four players invented by Andrew Looney in 1999. It is played with Icehouse pyramids on a chessboard. <blockquote>The first thing to note about Martian Chess is that it is not a chess-type game at all. Instead, the objective is to accumulate points by capturing pieces. Martian Chess is [...] an original game with novel tactics and strategy.</blockquote>
In 1996, Looney had invented Monochrome Chess, a similar two-player game that uses regular chess pieces where the half of the board determined who controlled a piece. While the king is not royal, the king and rook can castle.
History
Martian Chess was one of four games in the Icehouse: The Martian Chess Set released by Looney Labs in 1999. The rules to the game were reissued in 3HOUSE booklet in 2007, again by 2013 in Pyramid Primer No. 1 and in 2016 as a part of Pyramid Arcade boxed set.
Rules
thumb|right|500px|Four-player and two-player starting setups
Initial setup
Each player starts with nine pieces: three small (pawns), three medium (drones), and three large (queens). The color of the pieces is irrelevant to the gameplay. The players decide who moves first. Play turns alternate, and pass to the left after each move.
Movement and capturing
The red lines in the diagrams indicate notional canals which divide the board into territories, or quadrant. At any given time a player controls only those pieces that are in their territory.