Chess, the most famous abstract strategy board game in the world, is played by people from all ages, all professions and all paths of life. There are champions, masters and grand masters of the game, as well as people that play it every now and then with friends, or every Friday night at their local chess club. Despite its shady reputation of being a boring and tedious game, once you actually play it and really get into it, you discover how much of a challenging yet fun experience it is. Moving your pieces, eating your opponent's, sacrificing yours, trying to figure out tactics... it is all a pure exercise of the mind where no "chance" is involved!
One of the big beauties of Chess is that one, that there is no randomness involved: it is purely deterministic. A player will never lose because of a die roll or a coin flip that went against her, but because the moves she made were not the best ones for that game. While this is a defining aspect of Chess, adding some form of chance to the game doesn't mean it becomes less fun in any way (depending on your own tastes).
While Chess is a great game by itself, there are several ways to expand the classic game, like adding extra rules (e.g. if a king becomes checked three times that player loses the game), adding and/or removing pieces (even pieces with different movement options), playing in a wider or smaller board, and even playing pieces depending on the roll of a die, or the number and suit of a card you just draw from a common playing deck.
A very peculiar way of expanding a game of Chess is by using cards; but not normal "hearts, spades, etc." playing cards, but cards that state a specific effect that occurs in a player's turn. One card could say something like:
"Change places of both kings on the board, given that doing so would put neither in checkmate."
Another could say:
"Select a piece you own; that piece may move as a knight this turn."
Yet another would probably say:
"Select an empty square; it cannot be occupied by any piece for the rest of the game."
And so on...
This kind of gameplay idea is common in trading card games like Magic: The Gathering and Yu-Gi-Oh, where you draw and play cards each turn in order to win the game. So, how does one incorporate such chaotic (and believe me, very fun!) mechanic into the game of Chess? While you could try creating cards of your own, a much better alternative is to buy a card set specially designed and created for this whole purpose. Not all card sets work the same way, but the essence is the same: you use cards to create unexpected effects every turn. The most iconic game of the "Chess with Cards" genre is called Knightmare Chess, which is developed by Steve Jackson games (creators of the Munchkin series).
If you want to play Knightmare Chess you will need to buy a "Knightmare Chess 2" set of 80 cards, which costs US$15.00 more or less. There was an original Knightmare Chess set that came before that one, but it is out of print permanently, which makes it hard to find and thus very expensive (around US$200 for a new set). Provided that you already have a Chess set, you will also need some way to "mark" pieces and squares (like poker chips, small cardboard tokens, coins, etc) in order to point out effects, and also some piece-like objects (extra pieces, miniatures, dice, whatever) that fit well in a square, and that you can put on the board in case an entirely new piece enters it (such as the "princess"). Oh, and you will also need a friend willing to play some crazy Chess with cards matches!
Once you have all the materials, read the rules and check out the cards. Get used to them, visualize how their effects work, and learn when and how you can use each card. Have your opponent take a look at the cards this way too. Once you both are ready, either create two custom decks out of the 80 cards according to the rules, or use a shared deck with all the cards. Draw 5 cards each, start playing Chess as normal... and then, unleash the chaos on the chessboard!
Other games of the same genre are Chaos Chess and Chess Heads. They are made by Hammerdog games and Chessmate.com respectively. Both follow different sets of rules: while Chaos Chess focuses on sacrificing cards in your hand to be able to use one of them, the other focuses on producing "entigy", which is kind of a resource that allows you to play cards, and that you primarily obtain by capturing opponent pieces. Also, both developers not only offer their card-sets, but also special chess sets specially made to be played with the cards. Finally, both developers offer "beta-cards" in PDF format, which can be printed and play-tested in order to decide if it is worth it to buy the complete set of cards or not.
It is a shame to see that these games are not as popular and widespread as they deserve to be. They provide not only a chance of enhancing the game of Chess up to chaotic proportions, but also encourages people that have avoided Chess because "it's boring" to actually give it a try. Also, these card games, combined with multiplayer Chess variants, create a surefire formula of chaos, laughs and an overall fun night.
Give one of them a try; you will never look at Chess the same way again!
