Atomic Chess ♟️💥

AtomicChess.py is a console-based chess variant where any capture triggers an “explosion” that removes the captured piece, the capturing piece, and any adjacent non-pawn pieces. This mechanic transforms the standard strategy and game loop of chess into something much more explosive! 🧨

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Project Highlights

• Variant Basics

  • Captures cause an explosion on the board: both the victim and captor are removed, plus any surrounding non-pawn pieces.
  • Kings cannot mutually explode; the first king removed loses.

• Design & Implementation
  I built the game in Python using object-oriented principles to keep the code modular and clear:

  • Controller (ChessVar)
    Manages turn order, console I/O, and overall game state.
  • Rule Engine (RuleBook)
    Encapsulates standard chess rules and atomic-specific logic (move validation, path clearance, blast-radius checks).
  • Board Model (ChessBoard)
    Represents the board as a list of dictionaries, executes moves and explosion logic, and renders an ASCII/Unicode board.
  • Piece Hierarchy
    A base ChessPieces class with Pawn, Rook, Knight, Bishop, Queen, and King subclasses, each overriding validate_piece_move for piece-specific movement rules.

  Core competencies demonstrated: inheritance & polymorphism, encapsulation, data-structure design (lists, dicts), error handling, and console-based UI.

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How to Play

1. Run ChessVar.py with Python.
2. Players alternate turns by entering origin and destination squares (e.g. e2 e4).
3. After each move, the board prints the updated state and any resulting explosion.
4. The first player to eliminate the opponent’s king wins! 🏆

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Built by Julio Diaz III (DevLo3) – Junior CS student at Oregon State University