Paco Sako

Hi Friends!

Hope you're doing well! Today I'm super excited to tell you about my new favorite chess variant, a truly beautiful game called Paco Ŝako (pronounced Paco Shako). It was a cool autumn morning in October and I was enjoying a breakfast sandwich and herbal tea at halftime of my morning walk at my absolute favorite coffee shop: SKOG Haus Coffee. I got a message from Dad with some links about Paco Ŝako and a message saying he'd ordered it and wants to try it out! The rest is history.

Paco Ŝako was created by Dutch artist Felix Albers, who first conceived it in 2014. Its name means “peace chess” in Esperanto, and its central idea is to replace capturing with embracing: opposing pieces form unions rather than removing each other from the board. Actually, I learned some Esperanto recently, so here’s a way to ask someone if they want to play Paco Ŝako!

Saluton! Ĉu vi ŝatus ludi Paco Ŝako?

(Hello! Would you like to play Paco Ŝako?)

Before we get to the game itself, we recently gifted a beautiful Paco Ŝako set to some of our friends up North, the Wangluo family in Canada, to enjoy! They’re a chess fam like ours, with Mom Tina running the Richmond Chess Champions club, where we play when we can, elder daughter May TDing amazingly, and younger daughter Joanne crushing it over the board as one of the top young players in Canada and already a WCM, who I recently drew! Check them out! Interestingly, as you'll read in our Blog | Chess Friends Books Northwest Chess magazine December article Chess Peace in a bit less than a month, while standard chess may be at surface level a depiction of war, deeper down it too is truly is a manifestation for peace. Back to Paco Ŝako.

Origins

According to the game’s official history, founder Felix Albers’s near fatherhood inspired the idea of black and white pieces embracing or dancing. He wanted to explore a different kind of relationship between the two sides while retaining the recognizable framework of regular chess.

Basic Rules

Paco Ŝako uses the familiar chess board, starting position, and piece movements, but replaces captures with unions: a white piece and a black piece share a square and move together. You win by joining one of your pieces to the opposing king; not by delivering normal checkmate. I like to think of it as a dance. The pieces are also beautifully designed and are made in such a way that they merge into a union or dance naturally. The base of each union forms a yin and yang symbol, celebrating the Chinese philosophy of complementary forces converging for cohesion, a beautiful message that this game is all about.

When your piece makes what would normally be a capture, it joins the opposing piece on that square. Neither piece leaves the board. A union contains one piece of each color. For example, if your bishop moves diagonally onto an enemy knight’s square, they become a bishop–knight union. On your turn, you may move the entire union using the movement of your own piece within it. In that bishop–knight example, the bishop’s owner moves the pair like a bishop, while the knight’s owner moves the pair like a knight. It's just like a dance, where you lead or follow in your way.

You cannot simply separate your piece from its partner, and an intact union cannot join another piece or union. To release one of your united pieces, move another of your pieces onto that union’s square, following its normal movement rules. The arriving piece replaces your piece in the union then the released piece moves immediately, during the same turn. You replace your own piece, not your opponent’s. It’s kind of like at a traditional dance, you tap the shoulder of one of the dancers to take their place, and they’re free to move on to the next partner. This can create a chain reaction, or a fluidly evolving dance in a single turn, which is one of my favorite aspects of Paco Ŝako, and often the main means to get to that coveted dance with the opposing king.

For example:

1. Your knight is united with an enemy bishop.

2. Your rook moves onto that square.

3. Your rook now partners the enemy bishop.

4. Your released knight immediately makes a knight move.

The released piece can land on an empty square, unite with a lone opposing piece, or replace another of your pieces in a different union. That last option releases another piece, continuing the chain – all within one turn. A chain finishes when the released piece reaches an empty square or joins a lone enemy piece. I’ve been playing a fair bit of Paco Ŝako researching for this article and I’ve found that the deeper you can think ahead and place unions on the other side of the board, you can create long chains that ultimately result in a dance with the king or Paco Ŝako.

Your goal is to bring one of your pieces into a union with the opposing king, either directly or at the end of a chain. Your own king cannot initiate a union, replace a piece in a union, or participate in a chain. A threat to unite with the king is called “Ŝako.” Importantly, the objective is the actual union with the king, rather than stopping at a conventional checkmate position.

A lovely photo taken by Dad of an over-the-board Paco Ŝako game played by Benji (white) and Vivaan (black) during one of our Chess Friends meetups. See all the pieces dancing? So nice. Black went on to win this game with an epic 12 link chain to reach Paco Ŝako.

Pawns and special moves

• Pawns form unions diagonally, using their capturing movement—not by moving straight forward into an enemy piece. A pawn already in a union transports its partner using its forward movement.

• Promotion still gives a choice of queen, rook, bishop, or knight. A united pawn also promotes when it reaches its promotion rank, even if its opponent transported it there. The pawn’s owner chooses the promotion piece.

• En passant still exists, but creates a union rather than removing a pawn. It can also occur during a chain.

• Castling retains the unmoved-king-and-rook and clear-path requirements. King safety must account for threats through chains as well as direct threats, which can make castling legality harder to spot.

Growth into a Community

Paco Ŝako quickly expanded beyond physical sets, though I still recommend playing OTB as it's extra special to physically experience these lovely pieces and this dancing gameplay. Rolf Kreibaum developed Pacoplay.com for online play, which is great to learn the game and develop some theory. There is also a course developed by Boon Yong and founder Albers, and while there are many known strategies and tactics, this game hasn't been researched nearly as much as chess and is very much evolving. That said, there are competitions, and some Dutch and world champions include Raimond Fluijt, Yorick Spits, Derk Dekker, and Bas Borgs. I also want to give a shoutout to the Rahimi sisters as being the first to use Paco Ŝako as an educational tool at a school in Iran.

Piece Dynamics        

Here are the main ways Paco Ŝako differs from chess and why it’s in many ways a more approachable and fun game to learn, especially if you’re familiar with the piece movement rules in standard chess.

• Paco Ŝako changes the dynamics by shifting the focus from capturing pieces to creating connections between them. Here’s what that means in practice:

  • Pieces become shared opportunities. When your piece joins an opponent’s piece, either player can move that union according to their own piece’s movement rules. You therefore have to consider how a move could help your opponent as well as yourself.

  • One turn can transform the position. Replacing your piece in a union releases it to move again, potentially releasing another piece in a chain reaction. That makes finding connected sequences especially important.

  • Capturing no longer simplifies the board. All pieces remain in play, so the challenge shifts away from accumulating a material advantage and toward arranging pieces into useful patterns that can reach the opposing king.

I love Paco Ŝako because it puts a creative twist on the chess I already enjoy. Instead of capturing each other, pieces join together, creating opportunities for very surprising combinations, in a fun dance. I especially enjoy the challenge of looking for connections between pieces and discovering how one move can lead to a whole chain reaction of possibilities. If you ever want to play a game, let me know, we have multiple Paco Ŝako boards and sets and would love to play a game!

That's all for today! See y'all next time! Sarang out.