Chess37

On April 21, 1997, a picture of a board with 37 squares was put on the WWW site of the Chess Variant Pages, and I (HB) asked for a variant that could be played on this board. One of the three variants I received came from David Howe. Below, you find his description of the game, which started with:

Happy 37th Birthday! At least I assume it's your birthday and that you're 37...

Anyway, here's a variant I thought of just now - obviously not play tested!

Chess37

Rules:

1. Pawns cannot initially move two squares.
2. Castling is not allowed.
3. All pieces move like the King, except when they are in the 3x3 central area. Pieces in that area move as in normal chess.
4. Pawns do not promote. A pawn reaching the back row may still move because it has the King's movement (because it's outside the 3x3 area in the center).

The starting setup is:

        +---+---+---+
        | r | k | r |    
    +---+---+---+---+---+
    | n | b | q | b | n |    
+---+---*************---+---+
|   |   * p | p | p *   |   |
+---+---*---+---+---*---+---+
|   |   *   |   |   *   |   |
+---+---*---+---+---*---+---+
|   |   * P | P | P *   |   |
+---+---*************---+---+
    | N | B | Q | B | N |    
    +---+---+---+---+---+
        | R | K | R |    
        +---+---+---+

Play It!