CROW'S FOOT

In the mid-20th century, humanity exhibited a strange habit of ceding even its leisure activities to machines. Following a prophecy by Alan Turing, chess-playing computers began proving their ability to defeat even professional human opponents. A number of apocalyptic scholars iterated on these designs, building increasingly competitive chess computers that proved their competence in tournaments worldwide. Their hypothesis was simple: that solving a basic simulation of war like chess could eventually solve war itself, and would prevent mutually-assured destruction by perfecting it. Well-meaning, intelligent people are tricked into building war machines by this exact same line of reasoning to this day.

In 1977, Chicago priest and grandmaster Maciej St. Martin, frustrated with these developments, proposed a set of rules for chess "that would only interest genuine human participation," especially focused on allowing players to change the game's desired end state by rethinking chess as merely a game of war.

The rules of St. Martin's variant, mostly referred to as Crow's Foot, are as follows:

1. For every three pieces on the board that have been captured, a player may forego making a move that would result in declaring checkmate by placing a crow on any unused tile of their back rank. Placing a crow takes a whole turn, and the player who does so foregoes their next turn as well.
2. If the only subsequent move available following the placement of a crow would put the opponent in checkmate, the game is declared over, and the crow count is left unchanged.
3. A player may choose to forfeit rather than allow their opponent to place a crow. If this rule is invoked, the crow count does not increase. If no crows have previously been placed, the match remains a normal chess victory with no crow count established whatsoever.
4. The only move a crow can make is not between tiles, but to leave the board altogether, which takes a turn. Crows can be taken like any other piece, but do not count towards the total number of pieces captured.
5. If the only subsequent moves available would place the opponent in checkmate following the placement of a crow, the crow is instead not placed at all, and the game is declared over, as further crows serve no purpose.
6. When the game ends, the total number of crows on the board is summed to the total crow count, regardless of their color.
7. Instead of simple wins and losses, the winner claims a degree of victory over their opponent based on the total crow count. For example, if white defeats black, and there are two black and one white crows on the board, white claims a three crow victory. Whether this count is a manner of honor, pride, insult, grace, or treaty, is left up to the players themselves to decide.
8. Once the game is completed, the board must be left untouched for the crows to clean up the battlefield. The two players agree to leave all pieces in place, and that they will not play against one another for at least as many months as their last game's total crow count.
9. A ten crow game should only be played as a vow between players to never play against one another again.
10. An eleven crow game means that the world as we know it has ended, and it is no longer man that is playing chess at all.