Jetan (also known as Martian Chess) is played on a 10x10 checkered board, black and orange. The game represents the traditional war between the black race from South and the yellow race from North. The object of the game is either to capture the enemy Princess or the Chieftain with any piece. Pieces in Jetan move in combinations of directions, which means they are free to change their direction during their move so long they do not cross the same square twice in a single move. Pieces may only capture on their final square.

The rules of Jetan were described in the science fiction novel "The Chessmen of Mars", Vol 5 of the "Martian Tales", by Edgar Rice Burroughs in 1922. So many wrong rules are given in sources, one may wonder: BUT, WHO REALLY READ THAT BOOK? At the last page of the book, Burroughs made a summary of the rules. Gollon took these rules for his own book ("Chess Variations Ancient, Regional and Modern") but could have made a few mistakes. One was corrupting some piece names. Another was probably a wrong assumption on the Thoat move (see variants). Further descriptions, Pritchard for example, followed Gollon. The first description given in the Chess Variant Pages from Hans Bodlaender on Internet, contained many other discrepancies from this genuine rules (Padwar moving orthogonally and more).

Here, the corrected actual rules are proposed here (well, except the draw-condition). Also, the name of the pieces have been restored to the ones given by Burroughs: Panthan, not Panthon or Panton; Flier, not Odwar which is another piece,...