I got my husband a new chess set for Christmas. He's always loved the game, but hasn't yet succeeded in engaging the kids too much. I thought this amazing set, made by Etsy maker William Gallmeyer of Tool Chess, built out of screws, nuts, and bolts would delight and compel them to try it out. I was two thirds right. My fifteen year old son, Charlie, who knew the basic rules, jumped right in. 12 year old Beatrice learned the rules fairly quickly and seemed to enjoy it. But Isabel, my youngest, wasn't biting.

"Chess rules are boring, " she said.

"So let's write some more interesting ones," said her big sister.

And so they did.

Below are Beatrice and Isabel's "Interesting chess rules." I wish I could pick a favorite.

Interesting Chess Rules (aka Chess Curses)

Whenever a player's piece is taken, they have to draw from the deck of curses, which include:

If you break a curse, you must draw another one and sing a song about what you did and why you won't do it again.
Every time your queen makes a kill, the king must shout, "That's my wife!"
For the rest of the game, your pieces must walk like they are on the fashion show cat walk.
Whenever ones of your pieces is taken, you must have a mini-funeral for the it.
Every time one of your pieces kills a horse, they must ride it into submission.
Whenever your bishop takes someone, you must give the victim a short blessing before sending them off to heaven.
Every time a rook is killed, the killer must stand on top of the rook and shout, "I'm the King of the castle!"
Whenever you put a king in check, or your king is put into check, you must do a short "check dance and song", either happy or sad, depending on the situation.
Whenever you move a knight, you must make horsey noises.
For the rest of the game, whoever you make a move of more then one space, you must say one square at a time the color of that square. Ex: "Black, white, black, white..."
Before you make any move, you must act out a dramatic good bye scene with the space you are moving from.
For the rest of the game, every time you take someone's piece, you must sing, "It's raining {name of piece you took}, Hallelujah!"
Every time you move your king, you must shout, "KING IN DA HOUSE!"
Every time one of your pawns makes a kill, one of your bishops must say, "That's my son!"
Every time the two kings are no the same color square, they must have an epic rap battle about their current situation.
For the rest of the game, talk to your chess pieces like they are people. You must ask before moving them.
Every time two queens are adjacent to each other, they must have a dance off.
Every time your horse jumps over someone, the person they jumped over must express their outrage.
Every kill you make must be ridiculously dragged out with a huge noogie fight.
Every time you kill a pawn, you must make a chess pun.
For the rest of the game, you must move your pieces with your elbow.