Chess Variants/Beirut Chess

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In a normal chess game, after 5. Nxe5 in the Ruy Lopez Exchange Variation, Black equalises with 5... Qd4. However in this Beirut chess game White designated the e5-knight as the bomb carrier, and so they can play 6.Boom!, destroying the black queen and giving White the advantage. The explosion would affect all of the squares around the knight, including the squares marked with crosses.

Beirut Chess is a variant that involves explosions, similar to atomic chess. However unlike atomic chess you are allowed to control when an explosion occurs.

Beirut chess was created by Jim Winslow in 1992 and named after Beirut, the capital of Lebanon, where numerous suicide bombings have taken place.

Before a game of Beirut chess begins, each player secretly designates one of their pieces (other than their king) as their bomb carrier. The most common way to mark this designation is to place a red dot on the underside of the selected piece.

Any any point in the game, if a player's bomb carrier piece is still on the board, then instead of making a move that player may say "Boom!" and overturn their bomb carrier piece to reveal the red dot. Then, any piece inside of a three-by-three radius of squares centered on the bomb carrier's square (including the bomb carrier itself) are removed from the board. Unlike atomic chess, pawns are destroyed in the explosion.

A player may not detonate their bomb carrier piece if the resulting explosion would blow up their own king or expose their own king to check.

If a piece is captured, it cannot be inspected to see if it was a bomb carrier.

If a player manages to use their bomb carrier piece to blow up the enemy king, they automatically win the game.

• Multiple Beirut Chess: Both player agree on a specified number of pieces for each side to designate as bomb carriers before the game begins, between two and fifteen.
• Dead Man's Switch: If a piece is captured, it is inspected. If the piece turns out to be the bomb carrier, the bomb carrier immediately explodes with the usual effects.