Pieces move exactly like normal chess — but kings can't capture.
Every capture sets off an explosion: it removes the captured piece, your capturing piece, and every non-pawn piece on the 8 squares around it.
Pawns survive explosions — they only die if captured directly.
Win by exploding the enemy king. You can even do it while your own king is in check — you win first.
Setups pick one
Standard — the normal atomic starting position.
Atomic960 — the back rank starts shuffled (Chess960). To castle, drag your king onto its rook (or its usual g/c square).
WolfRandom — 3 random opening moves are played for each side, kept roughly balanced, then it's a normal game.
Variants mix any
AnyCapture — you can also capture your own pieces, so you can set off explosions on purpose.
Duck 🦆 — after every move, move the shared duck to any empty square. It blocks everything (knights can jump it) and can't be captured. There's no check — just blow up the king.
Valentine 💘 — your King and Queen are inseparable: the king may only move to stay next to a queen, and a queen may only move to stay next to the king (any queen capture is exempt). No legal move means you resign.