Night Eaters 2026

Night Eaters is a chess-like two-player abstract game played on a standard 8×8 board. The game is built around a simple image: the night itself is the barrier between the two armies, and capturing is the act of eating the darkness to bring light. The tiles represent a starry night sky, and every capture brings the players one step closer to the open board.

At the start, White has eight pawns on rank 1 and Black has eight pawns on rank 8. Every square from rank 2 to rank 7 is covered by a neutral night-sky tile. Pawns move one square forward and capture one square diagonally forward; there is no initial two-square advance and no en passant. A pawn may enter a tile square only by capturing that tile. Capturing a tile removes it from the board.

Capture is mandatory: if a player has any legal capture, that player must make one, though they may choose which capture to make. Pawns that reach the far rank promote to a queen, the only promotion piece. The queen moves and captures as in standard chess and is also subject to mandatory capture.

A player wins when the opponent has no legal move on their turn, either because all opposing pieces have been captured or because the remaining pieces are unable to move. There is no check or checkmate. A draw is possible only by the fifty-move rule, threefold repetition, or mutual agreement.

—description from the designer