There seems to be a strip version of every type of game imaginable, but strip chess has been played for over 100 years. There are many variants of strip chess, though the ultimate purpose is to uncloth your opponent. Normal chess, of course, is a turn-based battle to checkmate your opponent's king by maneuvering your own pieces around a 64 square checkboard. The strip version makes people take clothes off if pieces are captured.
Classic Rules of Strip Chess
If you want to keep things simple, then stick with the classic rules of strip chess. Both players wear no more than 10 articles of clothing (2 socks, 2 shoes, underwear, pants, undershirt or bra, belt, and 2 accessories are common). Each time a Knight, Bishop, or Rook is captured, then whoever's piece was taken removes one article of clothing. However, if one of those above pieces is captured by a pawn, then two pieces of clothing come off. If the queen is captured, two pieces comes off. A player can get one article of clothing back if his or her King or Queen takes a piece. Checkmate means the loser must take off three pieces of clothing.
For a longer version of the game, where the loser isn't determined by checkmate, is when a player is simply checked, that player removes one piece of clothing. The loser is the one who gets completely nude.
Tournament Play
Yes, it's possible that more than two people will want to play strip chess in the same setting at the same time. You can play round robin or just set a maximum number of games per player. Instead of players taking off clothes after each capture, players will do so after each game.
- For a loss, the player will remove two pieces of clothing.
- For a draw, both players will remove one article of clothing.
- In a stalemate, the person with the most pieces takes off two pieces of clothing (since he or she could have prevented the stalemate).
The winner is the one who has collected the most clothes.
Strip Chess in Pop Culture
Strip chess has shown itself in entertainment. In April, 2002 some players engaged in a PG version of strip chess to promote Gordon's Gin. They used the one piece of clothing off per capture.
Hugh Grant and Alicia Witt's characters played strip chess in a scene in ''Two Weeks' Notice''. The rules for this particular movie version aren't known, but it seemed to have the same ultimate goal of the above versions.
Extreme Variants
Any of the following rules may be applied to any of the versions mentioned above.
- If a pawn is captured, then only a minor piece of clothing is removed (sock, tie). If there are no more minors clothes, then capturing a pawn does nothing.
- Take both bishops or knights (or a combination) and your opponent must remove his or her shirt.
- If both of your rooks are captured, then your pants come off.
- If a player gets his or her Queen captured, then girls lose their bras and guys lose their pants (or underwear if they are already pantless).
- There are rules for spectators if there are people watching. The spectators must pick a player to support and remove the same clothing as their player.
- One more rule that can be implemented deals with pawn promotion. If a pawn promotes to a knight, then the shirt comes back to the player. If the pawn promotes to a rook, then the pants return. Lastly, if the pawn switches to a Queen, then that player can choose to take back a piece of clothing he or she lost or have his or her opponent remove any piece of clothing that he desires.
