Horde

Horde is deliberately asymmetric: the two sides do not begin with equal armies and they do not have exactly the same objective. In the rules used by Lichess, White starts with 36 pawns and no king, while Black begins with the normal set of pieces and pawns, including a king.

Black wins by capturing every unit in White's horde. If a White pawn reaches the last rank and promotes to another piece, that promoted unit must also be captured before Black has eliminated the horde. White, by contrast, wins by checkmating Black's king.

White's lack of a king changes a basic rule: White cannot be in check or be checkmated. White's challenge is to preserve enough units to break through and attack the Black king. Black still has to obey normal check and checkmate restrictions while trying to reduce the horde.

Basic piece movement remains close to standard chess, although the unusual starting array requires special rules for some pawns that begin on nonstandard squares. For an actual game, the server or tournament rules defining the starting position should therefore be treated as the exact ruleset.