Har Meggido Chess

Dear Friends:

After being infected with the "Three Variants Virus" [thanks Daniil (lol), I hate you! (LOL!)]. I created this variant (read the making off) to ease my mind.

As every Three Variants Virus, this one has elements of FIDE, Shogi and Xiang Qi.

The name came from the mount Meggido in Israel, where the Final Battle will take place in a WWIII (read the tale too).

The objectives of the game are capture (checkmate) or stalemate the adversary’s king.

Setup

The set up is 15 columns by 18 rows. The palace is placed between f1 to j1 and f5 to j5 for white, and f18 to j18 and f13 to j13 for black. The river is between a9 to o9 and a10 to j10. The Shogi promotions zones are a12 to o12 for white and a6 to o6 for black.

11-14-12-12-13-03-03-04-03-03-13-12-12-14-11
15-00-16-16-17-00-05-00-05-00-17-16-16-00-15
07-00-00-00-09-00-00-01-00-00-09-00-00-00-07
07-10-08-08-09-00-06-00-06-00-09-08-08-10-07
18-21-19-19-20-02-00-04-00-02-20-19-19-21-18
26-26-26-26-26-26-26-26-26-26-26-26-26-26-26

The 00 are blank spaces, the other numbers can be seen in pieces.

Pieces

The pieces are:

2 Wazires (02): moves one space orthogonally (f5, j5, f14, j14);
4 Ferzes (03): moves one space diagonally (f1, g1, i1, j1, f18, g18, i18, j18);
2 Men (04): a wazir + ferz compound (h1, h5, h18, h14);
2 Gold Generals (05): a wazir enhanced with the ferz forward moves (g4, i4, g15, i15);
2 Silver Generals (06): a ferz enhances with the wazir forward move (g2, i2, g17, i17);
1 King (01): a royal man (h3, h16);

4 Stepping Dabbabah (07): slides to the second orthogonal space, but can’t leap, the first space must be empty (a3, a4, o3, o4, a15, a16, o15, o16);
4 Stepping Alfil (Elephant) (08): slides to the second diagonal space, but can’t leap, the first space must be empty (c4, d4, l4, m4, c15, d15, l15, m15);
4 Stepping Alibaba (09): a stepping dabbabah + stepping alfil compound (e3, e4, k3, k4, e15, e16, k15, k16);
2 Stepping Knights (maos) (10): slides to the first orthogonal space and then to the first outward diagonal space, but can’t leap, the first space must be empty (b4, n4, b15, n15);

2 Rooks (11): an unlimited wazir (a1, o1, a18, o18);
4 Bishops (12): an unlimited ferz (c1, d1, l1, m1, c18, d18, l18, m18);
2 Queens (13): a rook + bishop compound (e1, k1, e18, k18);
2 Knights (14): leaps to any space that can be reached by moving one space orthogonally, followed by another space diagonally outward, or vice versa (b1, n1, b18, n18);

2 Paos (15): moves without capture as a rook, but when capturing needs to jump over an intervening piece (still move as a rook) (a2, o2, a17, o17);
4 Vaos (16): moves without capture as a bishop, but when capturing needs to jump over an intervening piece (still move as a bishop) (c2, d2, l2, m2, c17, d17, l17, m17);
2 Leos (17): a pao + vao compound (e2, k2, e17, k17);

2 Lances (18): moves forward as a rook (a5, o5, a14, o14);
4 Diagonal Lances (19): moves forward as a bishop (c5, d5, l5, m5, c14, d14, l14, m14);
2 Compound Lances (20): a lance + diagonal lance compound (e5, k5, e14, k14);
2 Honorable Knight (21): moves as a knight only in the fowardmost moves (b5, n5, b14, n14);

15 Iron Generals (22): moves forward as a man (a6 to o6, a13 to o13) (takes place of the pawns).

Rules

FIDE: there’s no castling, double first step or en passant capture, pawn promotion will be discussed further.

Xiang Qi: as the stepping alfil (elephant), the stepping dabbabah and the stepping alibaba are confined to their field by the river (there’s an exception, discussed later), the men, wazires, ferzes and the king are confined to the palace, the kings can’t face each other (be on the same column without a intervening piece), pawn promotion will be discussed later.

Shogi: drops are allowed, if  an piece bound by the river is dropped beyond the river it cannot retreat pass the river, not promoted pawns can’t be in the same column, if this happens (capture, for example) must be corrected by pawn promotion or by moving either pawn, lances, silver generals, honorable knights promotes to gold generals, rooks to dragon kings (a rook + ferz compound), bishops to dragon horses (a bishop + wazir compound), paos to cannon kings (a pao + ferz compound), vaos to cannon horses (a vao + wazir compound), no piece can be dropped in the palace.

Pawn Promotion: the pawns (iron generals) have three ways to promote: a- crossing the river and gains the lateral one square move, b- crossing the promotion zone of Shogi and becomes a gold general,  c- reaching the last rank and promoting to any piece.

Notes

Both Making Off and tale comming soon.