A player loses by checkmate, stalemate or if all his pieces (except the King) are captured.
The board is made of three 6x6 boards, denoted by A, B and
C. The 2x2 central squares of boards A and C are removed, just
like in the next figure:
The 2x2 central squares of B are linked also to A and C as if
all 3 boards shared those same four squares. In a sense, if a
piece stands in one of these squares, it lies on all boards. So
for example, square Bc3 equals to Ac3 and Cc3. This way, we can
denote the central squares without the board prefix (Cc3 becomes
just c3). Notice that a rook movement can go from Ac1 to Bc6 (or
Cc6) since it is possible to be transferred to a different board
using the central squares.
The initial setup is presented in the next figure:
Piece 3D movements (I show the movements outside and inside
the central squares)
Rook: can also move up and down in rookwise fashion. For
example, the rook in Aa1 can also move to Ba1 and Ca1.
Bishop: can also move diagonals up and down. For example, the
bishop in Ab1 can move to Ba2, Bc2 and d3. From d3, the bishop
can go to Be4, Ce4 and Cf5 (from Be4).
Knight: jump 2 squares (north/south, east/west or up/down)
and then turn 90 degrees (there are 2 ways to turn 90 degrees in
3D) and move one square..
Queen: Bishop + Rook
King: can also move up/down. There is no castling.
Pawn: can also move 1 square up (for white) or down (for
black) or capture east/west in up direction for white and down
for black. For example, the pawn at Ab2 can move to Ab3 or Bb2, or
capture to Aa3, c3 (typical) and also Ba2 and Bc2. There is no
initial double move. White promotions occur in rank 6 of board C
and black promotions in rank 1 of board A.
Download
You may download a ZRF file for playing the Central Squares with Zillions of Games:
