Check out Balbo's Chess, our featured variant for October, 2024.

This page is written by the game's inventor, Andy Lewicki.

Hippodrome

The main actors are Knights.

Four of them are put in line at the edge row of the square (4x4). The remaining 12 figures (no pawns) are placed randomly within this 4x4 square board.

Next, one of the 12 pieces is removed (but not a Knight) and the goal is to move all four Knights to the other, opposite edge-row.

Knights jump as usual.

There is no check or capturing and all the pieces move according to the chess rules utilizing one empty space on the whole board.

Example board:

+---+---+---+---+
| R | R | B | Q | Target row
+---+---+---+---+
| R |   | B | R |
+---+---+---+---+
| B | Q | B | K |
+---+---+---+---+
| N | N | N | N | Starting row
+---+---+---+---+

I played this several times and it looks interesting. I would call it Hippodrome. This game can be extended by playing even further.

After the first tour is completed a player can try to line up the four Knights to the left side of the square and next to the other, right side.

I wonder how many times one can line them up? One can even fantasize and try to go the other site by putting them in line along the diagonal first. There is no end to invention.