Abstract: A chess game named Water Crystal for two opposed players to train intelligence and tactics, the chess game includes: —A checkerboard-style board partitioned by 12 horizontal lines and eleven vertical lines, divided in two symmetrical parts by a river, each part having a palace at the back rank center and patterns to help arrange pieces at the opening, a space, and a wooden bar at the end to help remember postponements; and—Two set of game pieces, each set having a color and including pieces named after the twelve zodiac animals and a Water Crystal piece, each having starting position, moving, and capturing rules, and where the starting positions of the two sets are symmetrical on the board.