Imagine if your chess pieces got bored of their little war games, and decided to play something a bit different. The rules are like Chess except as follows:
- There is a Ball piece that starts in the center grid intersection, it is treated as being in D4,D5,E4,and E5; whichever piece first occupies any of those squares plays the Ball as if it were in the square they occupy.
2. The Ball is played by any piece 'capturing' it. Instead of being captured, the ball immediately moves as a Neutral piece of the same variety that captured it, under the control of the capturer.
3. If the Ball would capture a piece on this move, it is instead treated as if captured by it. This is called a Pass.
4. Check and Checkmate are not relevant. Instead the game ends by moving the ball into the opposing goal; that being either D0, E0 or D9,E9. Pieces may not occupy these Goal Squares.
5. All pieces may capture opposing pieces as Standard Chess, the exception being that a King may not be captured while on his home ranks, those being 1,2 for White, and 7,8 for Black.
6. The Ball may be played by a pawn through either a capture move into its square, or by a standard move into its square. A pawn may play the Ball to a Capture square even if no Capture exists. Or a standard move sqaure even if there is a piece there. This means a pawn may always play the Ball to a square immediately or diagonally in front of itself, as well as two ranks directly in front of itself, if it is passed to while on its home rank.
That's all the rules, I think it's unambiguous, my friends and I have played at least 4 games, and no further clarifications have been necessary.
I've created a puzzle that uses these rules, based loosely on a position in one of the games with my friends. Your goal is to discover the path to victory. It is White's turn, and someone can win in five or fewer turns.
