Stowe evolves the game of Chess to a new level by allowing a player's pieces to stack on top of each other through any legal Chess move. As stacks grow, each one may move like the normal movement of the top piece or may use a secondary movement ability determined by the height of the stack. Each piece has a number on it that corresponds to the height stack needed to use its movement ability. Stacked pieces can unstack, but only one at a time and can only move like the piece unstacking.
Turn Overview: On a players turn, they may move any one of their 16 pieces according to traditional Chess piece movements. A player may use any of these movements to stack one or more pieces on top of another. If a stack of pieces already exists, a player may unstack the top piece according to it's Chess movement ability. Only one piece can unstack at a time. After a player makes one move, play proceeds to the next player.
Like traditional Chess the game ends when one player Wins by capturing their opponent's King, or results in a Stalemate if no players posses the ability to capture their opponents King.
Other variants of play include:
Minimizing the board to 3 or 5 lanes, and following the recommended setup.
Using the Stowe Backgammon Dice to have players moves be determined by rolling a dice.
In Wild West Chess players simply stack on top of opponents when capturing pieces. If de-stacked opponents gain back control of their piece(s).