Each player owns a castle consisting of 3×3 squares surrounded by a wall of 12 squares. A king may not leave its 3×3 castle, but the rooks are free to move unimpeded by castles or walls.
- The king can move and capture like a chess king or a chess knight.
- A rook moves like a rook in chess, unimpeded by castles and walls, and if ending on a square in the enemy castle, automatically promotes to a queen.
- A queen moves like a queen in chess, and is unimpeded by castles or walls.
- A rook or queen may capture an opponent's rook or queen only when one of these pieces is on the enemy's wall, and the other piece is in its own castle. Then either player having the turn to move may capture. (In other situations rooks and queens cannot capture, and simply block one another's movement. For example, a queen in an enemy castle is capturable only by the king.)
- Check occurs to a king whenever the king is in the path of an enemy rook or queen. Castle walls do not block checks.