New here? Atomic chess plays like normal chess with one wild twist — every capture explodes. From that idea grows a whole family of variants. Here's what each one is and how it's different, with a button to jump straight in.
When you capture, your piece and the captured piece explode — taking out every piece on the 8 surrounding squares too. Pawns are immune to the blast (they only die if captured directly), kings can't capture at all, and you win the instant you blow up the enemy king. Get that, and you can play any variant below.
💡 Playing vs the computer? You can stack variants — try Duck + Valentine together, or AnyCapture on a 960 board. Mix and match to find your favourite chaos.
Rather play with a friend? In Hand & Brain, two players share one side against another pair. Each turn the Brain names a piece type — "knight", "queen" — and the Hand has to move a piece of that type, with no say over which one or where it goes. It's atomic as a team sport: half strategy, half trust. Grab a partner in online play and team up.
No partner? Go it alone against two. In Trios, three players each play two games at the same time — one as White, one as Black — against each of the other two. Score 2 points for a win, 1 for a draw across your two boards; the highest total takes the trio. There's no teammate to lean on — it's you versus both rivals at once. Round up two others in online play.