Ruddigore Chess was inspired by the comic opera Ruddigore (http://diamond.boisestate.edu/gas/ruddigore/html/rudi_home.html) by W. S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan. It is a variant of Chessgi (Ruddigore has a "gi" in its name, only spelled backwards). Ruddigore Chess depicts the Loser-Take-All battle between the forces of Sir Ruthven Murgatroyd (white), and the forces of Sir Despard Murgatroyd (black) over who has to be the cursed Bad Baronet of Ruddigore. (If you are familiar with the piece, and wish to object that no such battle took place in it, and furthermore, Sir Ruthven didn't have any forces other than his faithful steward Adam Goodheart, well, I can't help it if G&S missed such an obvious crowd pleaser, can I?)
 
Ruddigore Chess is a variant of Chessgi, which in turn is a hybrid of Chess and Shogi. It is played like regular Chess except that captured pieces are put into the hand of the capturing player, and can be dropped onto the board in later turns, the King is replaced by a Baronet who also capture like a Knight and can capture friendly pieces (If a man can't capture his own pieces, whose pieces CAN he capture?), the Knights are replaced by Gentlemen, the Pawns by Quick Pawns, and there's the curse. Because of the curse, if a player does not capture a piece on an even turn (even their own piece), they must sacrifice a piece to the curse, and it is gone from the game for good.
 
Zillions does not play this game particularly well, but if given enough time it will play well enough to let you figure the game out. For exciting play, a human opponent is suggested.
 
A longer, more detailed description of Ruddigore can be found at http://www.chessvariants.com/other.dir/ruddigore-chess.html.