Mideast Chess was described late 1971/early 1972 by John Mantle Green,
wro wrote to John Gollon (author of Chess
Variants: Ancient, Regional, and Modern). Gollon send parts of a
draft of a followup of his book to Eric Greenwood in 1976; Eric
communicated this information to me in 1997.
Green named this variant Mideast Chess, because some of its
pieces resemble pieces from Tamerlane Chess. Green wrote
that Mideast chess was a relatively local variation of California, and
characterized the game as probably a local experiment that players
found interesting.
Many of the names of the pieces are
as given to them by Edward Falkener in its
book Games Ancient and Oriental and How to Play them. (A Dover
reprint of 1961 may still be available?) Falkener renamed the pieces in
his book, and this game follows the naming of the pieces from Falkener.
Rules
Mideast chess is played by two players on a ten by ten board. Each
player has in addition to a normal set of pieces, two courtiers, two
chevaliers, two castles, two cavaliers, and two extra pawns.
The king, queen, rook, knight, bishop, and pawn move as in orthodox chess,
but pawns can also promote (when they reach
the last row) to cavalier, courtier, chevalier, or castle,
as well as to queen, rook, knight, or bishop. There is no castling.
The castle moves as a knight, or can jump to any square that is
horizontally, vertically, or diagonally two squares away. So, a castle
on d4 can jump to b2, b3, b4, b5, b6, c2, c6, d2, d6, e2, e6, f2, f3,
f4, f5, or f6.
The chevalier has a kind of `streched knights leap': it jumps two
squares straight and one diagonally. So, a chevalier on a1 can jump to
b4 or to d2.
The courtier has another kind of streched knights leap: it jumps one
square straight and two diagonally, so for instance from a1 to c4 or to
d3.
The cavalier first moves one square diagonally, and then an arbitrary
number of squares horizontally or vertically, or
it moves one square horizontally or vertically, and then an arbitrary
number of squares diagonally. The cavalier may not jump: all squares
passed over must be empty. The cavalier may not move to an adjacent
square.
Gollon suggested to allow pawns to make an initial triple step,
extending the en passant rule to all squares passed by by the pawn.
Also, Gollon suggested to allow castling, where the king always moves
three squares when castling; other castling rules as in orthodox chess.
Greenwood's variant
Eric Greenwood suggested a variant, and wrote the following.
White: pawns now on d4, e4, f4, and g4, W/ corresponding for Black.
These pawns do not double jump on the first move.
On d3: Vizier-1 square horizontally and vertically.
On e3: Silver-1 square diagonally or forward.
On f3: Gold-1 square diagonally forward or vertically or horizontally.
On g3: Firzan- 1 square diagonally OR BACKWARDS {My modification}.
Upon reaching the back rank, all these pieces promote to Guard-one
square any direction.
These modifications make for a slightly more strategic level game, and
help cut down on the immediate forkings of the COurtiers and the
CHevaliers-note the CHevalier's move is the same as the General in
Renniassance.
Written by Hans Bodlaender and Eric Greenwood, based upon information from
a manuscript of John Gollon from 1976.
WWW page created: October 7, 1997.
