Stratego and standard chess both reward planning ahead, but they make players plan with different information. In chess, both sides can see every piece and its location. In Stratego, opposing ranks stay concealed until encounters reveal them, so players must reason not only about possible moves but also about what an unknown piece might be.
What information can each player see?
Stratego: hidden ranks, visible movement
In the International Stratego Federation’s tournament rules, each player sets up pieces in the four rows nearest them with the backs facing the opponent. During ordinary play, you can see where an enemy piece is, but not its rank. The rules are based on Jumbo Stratego Original Game Rules, version 2006, and are standard criteria for tournaments seeking ISF rating; editions and house rules may differ. Read the ISF rules.
Chess: a shared, visible position
Under FIDE’s over-the-board laws, standard chess is played on an 8-by-8 board with the pieces in a prescribed initial arrangement. Both players see the identity and location of every piece. The objective is to checkmate the opposing king. The cited English FIDE text took effect on 1 January 2023. Read FIDE’s Laws of Chess.
How does hidden information change Stratego strategy?
A Stratego move can be a probe as well as a way to gain position. When pieces meet in combat, the attacker reveals and names the attacking piece’s rank before the defender reveals the attacked piece. The lower-ranked piece is removed; if ranks are equal, both are removed. A player therefore weighs the immediate value of an attack against the risk of losing a valuable unit or exposing its identity.
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- Stratego is the strategic game where you challenge your opponents in the heat of battle
- Your task is to capture your opponent’s flag while defending your own
- Lead your men into battle, every move is crucial
- Includes 2 x 40 pre-printed playing pieces, Game board, Screen and 2 sorting trays for the pieces
- Suitable for 2 players, aged 8+
Revealed ranks become evidence for later decisions. Players can use what they have learned, along with an opponent’s movements, to form and revise beliefs about other hidden pieces. But a piece’s identity remains uncertain until it is revealed, and a move alone does not guarantee what rank it has.
- Contact carries uncertainty: an attack may win, lose, or remove both pieces, depending on the hidden rank.
- Movement can communicate: deployment is chosen by each player, and later movements can shape what the opponent suspects.
- Special interactions matter: Scouts can attack over a clear straight line, miners can defuse bombs, and the spy has a special attack against the marshal.
What is different about chess strategy?
Chess does not require players to infer an enemy piece’s identity: the position is visible. The uncertainty is about the opponent’s next choice and how the position will evaluate after possible moves. Players still predict, prepare threats, and assess risk, but they calculate from the same publicly known arrangement of pieces.
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- Test your skill with Stratego, a classic game of battlefield strategy
- Let battle commence between Assassins and Templars in this ‘Stratego Assassins Creed’ special edition
- Attack and be the first to capture your opponent’s Apple of Eden Play three exciting variations of the game: Classic, Duel, and Special
- Includes 30 red playing pieces, 30 blue playing pieces, game board, screen, and sticker sheet
- Suitable for 2 players, aged 8+
Stratego also involves prediction, but adds inference about the present position. That distinction does not mean one game is inherently more strategic or difficult; each asks players to manage a different kind of decision.
Why setup and objectives matter
Stratego: protect and find the flag
Stratego’s central objective is to capture the opponent’s flag, which any piece can do. Bombs cannot move, and any attacking piece other than a miner is destroyed when it attacks a bomb. A player’s deployment therefore has to account for both protection and the possibility that the opponent is searching for a route to the flag. These details follow the ISF tournament rules; consult the rules for the edition being played if local or product rules differ.
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Rank #3
- The classic game of battlefield strategy!
- It's a light strategy game for two players
- Command your Army, devise plans using strategic attacks and clever deception!
- Be the first player to capture the other Army's flag to win!
- For ages 8 and up
Chess: begin from a fixed position
Under the cited FIDE laws, chess begins from a standard arrangement rather than a concealed, player-chosen deployment. Strategy develops through moves from that shared position toward checkmate. This gives chess a known starting state, while Stratego’s initial placements and hidden ranks make uncertainty part of the game from the outset.
Is chess a game of perfect information?
In the ordinary sense used for board-game comparisons, standard chess is a game of perfect information: players can observe the complete board state, including every piece’s identity and square. That does not make the outcome predictable; the players’ future choices and the consequences of those choices remain uncertain. Stratego, by contrast, has hidden information because each player’s ranks are concealed from the opponent.
Rank #4
- Strategy Board Game
- Players: 2
- Age: 8 and up
Does one game have more possible strategies?
A 2022 DeepMind research paper estimates Stratego’s game tree at approximately 10535 nodes. This is the paper’s estimate of the scale of the game tree, not a directly measured count, and it does not by itself establish that Stratego is more difficult or more strategic than chess. The paper also reported that DeepNash reached a yearly 2022 and all-time top-three rank on the Gravon platform; that is a historical result, not a current ranking. Read the DeepNash paper.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Which game should you try?
Choose chess if you want to study tactics from a fully visible, shared board. Try Stratego if you want the extra challenge of interpreting concealed ranks and deciding when an uncertain encounter is worth the risk. Hasbro’s instructions page describes its Stratego Game, model 04714, as a two-to-four-player game whose objective is to capture the enemy flag; that product description should not be assumed to cover every edition. See Hasbro’s Stratego instructions.
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- Brand New in box. The product ships with all relevant accessories
- Includes gameboard, armies with 4 Infantry, 12 Cavalry, and 8 Artillery each, deck of 56 Risk cards, 1 card box, 5 dice, 5 cardboard war crates, and game guide.
- PLAY USING ALEXA SKILL: Players have the option of playing this Risk game using Alexa. (Alexa device sold separately. ) Note: sound comes from paired Echo device.
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