Ostsee-Schach 2021

The water stretches to the horizon. But even though the sea sometimes seems quite calm, the animals of the Baltic Sea know how to pass the time. Who is beating whom here? Does the starfish beat the seagull or the seal beat a cockle?

Ostsee-Schach is a refreshing, fast chess variant by Dirk Holdorf, in which 2 players aged 8 and up compete with Baltic Sea animals in a tournament. You take turns and play until one of you scores 3 victory points and thus wins - or has only one piece left and thus loses.

You get victory points by stacking 3 discs or by moving your own pieces to the opposite edge of the board. When it is your turn, you move one of your pieces according to the animal you see on it. The figure can consist of only one disc or of two discs, with the upper one belonging to you. If you move one of your own pieces onto a square where there is already an opponent's piece, you simply place your piece on top of the other one and take it over. If it is then three discs high, you receive a victory point. However, you may never stack more than 3 discs on top of each other. Then it is your opponent's turn until one of you has collected the required three victory points.