How to play

Abstract Chess is a game of collaborative, competitive art-making.

Play consists of two players sitting on opposite sides of a canvas (usually an index or recipe card) taking turns making abstract marks until they are both satisfied with the result.

The term “canvas” is intentionally vague. You can use a sheet of paper, a recipe card, a few square yards of burlap, a post-it…

A turn begins when you take a utensil (usually a marker or crayon) and make contact with the canvas. The turn ends when you break contact.

The term “utensil” is intentionally vague. You can use a pencil, a paintbrush, a fingernail, a power-drill…

Players may do as much or as little as they desire on a turn; but should only make abstract marks. You should avoid recognizable symbols, characters, or pictures.

It’s very important that the players do not turn the canvas during the game, or get up and look at it from a different perspective.

Throughout, each player will see the closest side of the canvas as “down” and the far side as “up” from their own perspective.

These perspectives are in direct conflict.

Only when both players are satisfied with what they see, and agree to be done, should they turn the canvas and see what their opponent has been seeing for the whole game.

Sometimes a winner is obvious… Mostly, the players should recruit a random set of people (whoever’s sitting nearby) to vote on the question:

“If you were going to hang this on a wall, which way would you hang it up?”

The Instruction Sheet