Dueling Archishops is a small chess variant, invented by Jason Wittman.
Rules
The game is played on a 2x3 board, with the short sides facing the players.
Each player has an Archbishop (the royal piece, which moves like a knight and
a bishop), and a Changeling, which turns into a different piece each time it
moves. In the initial array, White has his Archbishop on a1 and his
Changeling on b1, and Black has his Archbishop on a3 and his Changeling on
b3.
White:
Royal archbishop a1; Changeling b1
Black:
Royal archbishop a3; Changeling b3.
The Changeling starts out as a Thorny Rose, which moves like a king, but can
only capture like a bishop. Upon moving, it turns into a Rook. When it
moves again, it turns into a bishop. When it moves yet again, it turns into
Queen. On moving a fourth time, it turns back into a Thorny Rose, and so on.
The Drop Rule:
When a player's Changeling is captured, that player may, on
any subsequent turn drop it back onto any empty square (this counts as a
move). However, the Changeling can only be dropped in the same form in which
it was captured. Bishops can only be dropped as bishops, rooks can only be
dropped as rooks, and so on.
The object is checkmate the opponent's Archbishop. Whoever does that first
wins.
Written by Jason Wittman; edited by Hans Bodlaender.
WWW page created: May 14, 2003.