Most times, we don't get a full team with pawns and two knights and all that, so we have to tweak the rules a bit. For those of you who don't know how to play chess (like me), here's how to be a piece!
1. Change your avatar to your team's color! Let's not wear light grey for the black team and all red for the white team. The colors are generally white & blue against red and black. So orange, green, purple, etc are just out of the question, lol!
2. Try to find something that signifies which piece you are.
A King can wear a crown, cape, and/or staff. But it doesn't too much matter what the king wears because he's the only one that needs to know the pieces anyway!
The queen can be pretty! A flowing dress and tiara. If it's a guy playing it, a kilt? wink
The bishop should wear a robe of some sort. Maybe dress up like a mage with a wizard's hat and wand.
The rook can be distinguished most obviously with the cheap paper spiky hat.
The knights should carry a sword, shield, or armor! PREPARE TO FIGHT!
The pawns rarely get represented, but if they are, they should be very simple outfits. Make sure you don't look like a knight or any other piece so people don't get confused. Perhaps a simple beanie would work.
3. Go to your place once it's chosen and sit down. This way, you don't end up moving by accidentally clicking or anything, messing up the configuration of the current set-up (thus potentially forgetting where you were and inducing shenanigans-claims and a full out war!)
4. Listen carefully for your (nick)name or piece name and move accordingly. Not paying attention could slow down the game and make it boring.
5. Try to keep chatting to a minimum. Sometimes the poor kings get distracted by funny chatter and can't think of the next good move! It's nice to pass the time while they think, but try not to get too out of hand.
6. Stay off the board if you're not playing, and move off quickly if you die. If you think you'll be brb/afk/bbl for too long, ask one of the back-up bystanders to fill in for you. Try not to get mad when newbies and random visitors walk onto the board, because they probably don't realize what's going on before it's too late... Then, once they're in the middle, they will probably feel the need to stand there and ask what's going on, lol.
Starting Positions:
Since we tend not to have enough players, the layout changes a little. Most of the time, we play four-on-four matches with the bishop next to the king and the knight next to the queen (So for the black team left to right, it's empty-empty-bishop-king-queen-knight-empty-empty)(White team is empty-empty-knight-queen-king-bishop)
For a three-on-three team, we could have the bishop next to the king and the queen next to him.
That should be about it! Any questions?
(Other crew: feel free to edit this)
