Chess variant: Capture the flag

Most people already know the game mode “Capture the Flag” from shooter games. Here, the goal is to capture a flag and bring it back to your own base.

In the ChessMissions app, we bring “Capture the Flag” into the world of chess. In this chess variant, the goal is literally to reach a flag with one of your chess pieces and then move it back to your own base.

Whoever manages to do this first wins the game. However, you should be careful not to lose all of your pieces. This can also end the game – in this case, with your defeat.

You can move the flag by moving a piece onto its square. From that moment on, it is attached to that piece and moves together with it. This only ends when the piece either reaches the base (thus winning the game) or an opponent captures the piece and takes over the flag.

Example: Mission 2. First, move a piece onto the red flag in the center, then onto the green base at the very bottom to win the game.

Obviously, capturing the flag with a pawn isn’t the best strategy – most of the time, it doesn’t even stand a chance of bringing it back to your own base.
So that leaves just one question: what is the best strategy instead?