Chessboard Death Maze

Please note that this is a digital product. Your game is delivered as a PDF file which you can download. No physical product is delivered.

Aim of the Game

To be the player who, in the agreed time, manoeuvres the most of their “pawns” through the chessboard death maze to escape off the edge of the board.

Overview

Each player has a playing board that represents a chess board. The player also has eight playing pieces. These pieces represent pawns. These pawns start on the eight squares at the bottom of the board.

A path leads from these squares through all the squares on the chessboard. The final square of this path is marked “ESCAPE” and allows the pawns to jump off the chessboard to safety.

The other squares along the path all contain a coloured chess piece. These chess pieces may be coloured red, green, blue or black and may be a knight, a bishop, a rook, a queen or a king. The chess pieces are on different squares on each board which enables the game to be played simultaneously by up to 20 players.

The party host has two dice, one black and one white. They also have an “Attack Grid” card.

The party host rolls the dice and announces the number thrown. Players must move one of their pawns that number of squares along the chessboard path.

The party host now looks at the dice, consults the attack grid and announces which of the coloured chess pieces are attacking. This could be:

• a specific colour and type of chess piece such as “Red Knights”
• a specific type of chess piece such as “All Bishops”
• a specific colour of chess piece such as “All Green Chess Pieces”.

Any pawn that is on a square of an attacking chess piece is “taken” and removed from the board.

The party host now rolls the dice again and announces the new number. Pawns move again and then more chess pieces attack.

The winner is the player who has escaped most pawns off the board after a set time period.

Small and Big Party Versions

As well as the extra game boards these versions include a suggested script for explaining the game's rules to your guests.

Personalised Versions

On the standard board picture you can see that in the standard version the chess pieces are labelled "Red Knight", "Blue Bishop" etc.

On the personalised board the chess pieces will be listed as belonging to specific party guests. E.g. Amelia's Red Knight, Harry's Blue Bishop. This will lead to some amusing comments as a player's pawn is taken by their best friend's chess piece!