The Rules of Flat 3D Chess

The standard rules of 3D Chess apply, but the Knights and Pawns must be defined here.

Pawns

Pawns may only move straight forward on the same level, and when they capture, they must also stay on the same level. In other words, Pawns are two-dimensional creatures and never under any circumstances go from one level to another.

Knights

The Knight makes its normal move, or goes one square up or one square down from its normal destinations.

From 4e4, a Knight can go to 24 different places: 3d6, 4d6, 5d6; 3f6, 4f6, 5f6; and so on.

Notice that the Knight has a fairly flat profile and cannot make a "vertical Knight" move: it is illegal for the Knight to move from 1g1 to 3g3.

Pawn Power In Chess

In two-dimensional Chess, each square of the board can potentially be attacked by at most two Pawns, so that every time you advance a Pawn you need to think carefully about the squares for which you have weakened your potential for Pawn control.

In Flat 3D Chess, this is still true; however, we have gained this at the cost of limiting Pawns to a two-dimensional life.

Remarks

This is still a true game of 3D Chess, and not a 3D-Chess-Variant.

Pawns on different levels cannot interact with each other, but because of the squares they defend and attack, Pawns do interact with pieces on other levels. As a result, Pawn formations on one level do have a relationship to Pawns formations on nearby levels.

For example, after 1. 4e2-4e4 4e7-4e6 2. 4d2-4d4 5e7-5e5 3. 5e2-5e3 5d7-5d5 4. 5d2-5d4 4d7-4d5 5. 4e4-4e5 5e5-5e4, it is obvious that one cannot think about how to deal with the 4th-level Pawn formation without also considering the 5th-level formation.

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