Lemniscate Chess is played on a 72-cell board in the shape of an infinity symbol, otherwise known as a "lemniscate." It is inspired by INFINITE CHESS, invented by MARK COLEBANK in 1997. I loved Infinite Chess, but thought there was room for improvement in the placing and movement capability of the Pawns. Because the Infinite Chess game is proprietary, I realized that I would have to change more than just the pawns in order to make what I could present as a game of my own. Besides the Pawn modifications, I have customized the promotion rules and checkmate rules, added several new pieces, and renumbered the board in a way that is (to me) more user-friendly.

The standard chess pieces are used (1 King, 1 Queen, 2 Rooks, 2 Knights, 2 Bishops, 8 Pawns), as well as four "fairy" pieces : 1 Empress (a Rook-Knight combination), 1 Princess (a Rook-Bishop combination), 1 Crusader (a King-Knight combination), and 1 Crown Prince (moves like a King, but is not royal). There is also the Steward, which exists only as a promotion piece : on entering the "enemy zone," a Pawn becomes a Steward, which moves passively in any orthogonal direction, and captures in any diagonal direction.

White Pawns move in a Southwest-Northeast or a Northwest-Southeast direction (the latter are shown upside down, for clarity). Black Pawns similarly move in a Southeast-Northwest or a Northeast-Southwest direction (again, the latter are shown upside down).

The game is won by checkmating or stalemating the opponent. The King is immobilized when attacked, meaning that a check must be relieved in some other way - either by blocking the line of attack or by capturing the attacker. I settled on this rule after playtesting with zillions revealed that it is often impossible to force checkmate on a virtually seamless board like this one. I do not like drawish games, so I decided that some restrictions on the King, without distorting his basic character, would be in order.