Lielow Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Components
• Setup
• How to Move
• The Crown and the King
• Winning the Game
• Variant: Size-9 Board

Components

• A chessboard (an 8×8 grid of squares).
• A large supply of stackable checkers in each of two colors, one color per player.
• One additional token per player, called the "crown," that can be placed on top of a stack to mark it as that player's king.

Setup

Initially, 8 checkers of each color are placed exactly where the pawns start out in Chess: one full row of single checkers for each player, on the row directly in front of that player's side of the board. There is no king in the initial position — neither player starts with a crown placed on the board.

How to Move

Each turn, you move one of your stacks in a straight line — orthogonally or diagonally — a number of squares exactly equal to the size of the moved stack. The size of a stack is the number of checkers in it, not counting the crown.

• If the stack lands on an empty space, it grows by the addition of 1 checker of your color.
• If the stack lands on an enemy stack, the enemy stack is removed and your stack shrinks down to 1 checker of your color (unless it was already size 1, in which case its size simply does not change).
• It is not legal to land on a friendly stack.
• Jumping over stacks — friendly or enemy, of any size — is allowed; only the landing square matters.
• Stacks may also jump off the board, thereby removing themselves from the game.
• Passing is not allowed — you must move a stack every turn.

The Crown and the King

The position of the crowns changes throughout the game, and is determined by the following rule:

• After each move — both your own and your opponent's — if your biggest stack is uniquely tall among your own stacks, put your crown on that stack. There is no other way the crown can change heads.
• The stack with a crown on it is your king.
• If no single stack of yours is uniquely the tallest (for example, if your two tallest stacks are tied), the crown does not move, and stays on whichever stack currently holds it (or stays off the board, if you have not yet had a uniquely tallest stack).

Winning the Game

You win if your opponent's king is removed from the board — that is, if the stack carrying your opponent's crown is captured, or if your opponent moves that stack off the board.

Variant: Size-9 Board

Abstract Play's official digital implementation of Lielow offers an alternate board size as a variant, playable under the same rules above:

• The board is enlarged to 9×9 squares.
• Each player starts with two full rows of single checkers instead of one: one row along their own back edge of the board, and a second row two squares further in, leaving one empty row between the two.
• All movement, growth, capture, crown, and win-condition rules are unchanged.