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This page is written by the game's inventor, Lev Grigoriev. This game is a favorite of its inventor.

Dovecote Chess

Chess game becomes a some kind of paradise after move when Queens are traded)

Another slight diff in standard setup, which generally changes the game, is here.
Queen is not the goddess of the chessboard anymore because she is retired. There's no Queen at all.

Setup

Dove replaces the Queen on both sides.

Pieces

Hey, what's going?! Save yourself!! or you'll be overwhelmed by…

Dove (D or Ď) !!!

This is the piece which is created by me and by the way its movement contains the elements from different places and games (Chaturanga, Shatranj, Grande Acedrex, Shogi and Chu Shogi, Tamerlane Chess, etc.).


It moves (always jumping and ignoring any piece on its way): 1 or 3 spaces diagonally forward; 2 or 3 straight vertically; 2 diagonally and sidemost-knightwise backwards. It's asymmetric.

Rules

Exactly as Standard, but it is more authentic game.

Notes

Gameplay differs a lot; checkmate in the 2nd move (if opponent blunders) is possible because Dove jumps; however Scotch Game, King's, Queen's(?) and Elephant Gambits, Amazon Attack and several other openings are still playable. 
Dove worths 5, and it's not a hybrid of existing pieces (however it is major and can checkmate); promoting a Pawn is more complicated – each piece is unique and doesn't repeat any other piece. You can promote to any piece to prevent stalemate; promotion to Bishop or Knight can be useful for doing a fork (pin/skewer) and probably equaling or (if it isn't alone) even winning the game; Rook is the best piece to achieve checkmate (with 2 Kings and 1 piece endgame); Dove is universal and can use (incredibly powerful) forking ability and checkmate later.

There's also a variation called

Dovemate Chess

where King and Dove swap their places and roles: King becomes Doubler (non-royal King), and Dove becomes royal, must be protected and, though it still jumps, it never jumps over covered squares (simple for linear dests, but knightwise ones can be reached by either of the two shortest paths: if one is covered, second can help). Otherwise it's like Chess, though based on Knightmate.



This 'user submitted' page is a collaboration between the posting user and the Chess Variant Pages. Registered contributors to the Chess Variant Pages have the ability to post their own works, subject to review and editing by the Chess Variant Pages Editorial Staff.


By Lev Grigoriev.

Last revised by Diceroller is Fire.


Web page created: 2023-09-01. Web page last updated: 2023-10-22