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Magna Carta Chess. Black has the FIDE array, White has a Marshal and an Archbishop instead of a Queen and King. (8x8, Cells: 64) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]

Charles Gilman wrote on Sat, Oct 4, 2003 07:40 AM UTC:

The Queen is the piece I am most open to changing as she was somewhat
peripheral to the events. So far I have come up with the following
options, and would welcome feedback before settling on one as the final
form of the game.
(1)Black need only retain the King, but cannot have more than two Queens,
so that a Pawn reaching rank 1 when there are two Queens must be promoted
to an elemental piece.
(2)Black need only retain the King, but the Queen is reduced (and Pawns
potentially promoted) to Goldrider (no backward Bishop move).
(3)Black must retain the d8 piece but it is enhanced (and Pawns
potentially promoted) to Viceace (a Queen with the two forwardmost Knight
moves).
(4)Black must retain King and Queen but can also promote to both, as
precedented in Snark Hunt (under small variants).
The number of armies mentioned on this page now adds up to 9 suggested by
myself (including the FIDE one), 5 by Tony Paletta, and 1 by Daniel Roth,
all identical but for the central pair. This makes 2^15=32768 possible
combinations. Anyone care to suggest how many are well enough matched to
mention as spinoffs?