Almost One-dimensional Chess Variants

Sergey Sirotkin invented three chess variants of `almost one-dimensional nature'. Tape chess was invented in 1998 or 1999. The other two arose as afterthough in January 2000. Below, you see these games. See also:

One dimensional chess.

Tape chess

The board contains 20 fields located by a tape. The first and twentieth fields are stuck together. As a result, we obtain a circle.

The pieces are located: White - P, N, B, K, R, B, N, P + two empty fields + Black - p, n, b, r, k, b, n, p + two empty fields.

Rules:

The King moves and takes one field in any direction.
The Rook moves and takes by going as many squares as wanted in a direction without passing an occupied square.
The Bishop moves and takes somewhat similar to the rook, but it stays on squares of the same color, and can jump across squares of a different color. Thus, the bishop always moves an even number of squares, and when doing so, each second square passed by must be empty, but the odd squares passed by can possibly be occupied.
The Knight moves and takes by going exactly two fields. It can jump over the first field.
The Pawn moves and takes only forward on one field.

Purpose of the game is again to mate the king of the opponent.

Interactive Diagram

The board below wraps like in Cylinder Chess: the a- and t-'file' are connected.

Comment

And what will be, if we stick a tape together as a Moebius Ring?

Dollar chess

The idea of a board has arisen 09 January 2000.

Rules are the same as for Tape Chess.

Cross chess. Variant for four players

The idea of a board has arisen 09 January 2000.

Rules are the same as for Tape Chess.

In addition, pieces may change direction when crossing the centre square.

H-chess

February 7, 2000, Sergey Sitkorin sent a new chess variant, that fits in this family: H-chess. Sergey Sitkorin writes on this variant:

It can mean "Hello, Hans".

This game is played by two players on a board in the form of an H. Each player has a king, a rook, two bishops, two knights, and two pawns.

H-chess board and setup

The setup is shown above.

A king moves one square in an arbitrary direction.
A rook moves any number of squares in a straight line without crossing an occupied square. It can turn a corner.
A bishop moves by going an even number of squares on a line. It cannot jump across an occupied square of the same color, but it can jump across occupied squares of a different color. I.e., if only the third square on a line is occupied, the bishop can jump to the fourth square, but it the second square is occupied, then the bishop cannot jump to the fourth square. The bishop can turn a corner
Knight moves exactly two squares, and can jump across the first one
Pawn moves and captures forward and back one square horizontally or vertically. It does not promote.

Other rules are as in orthodox chess.

Written by Sergey Sirotkin. Edited by Hans Bodlaender.

WWW page created: January 25, 2000. Last modified: February 21, 2000.