Cube-Surface Board Chesses

These games were designed as an attempt to make a chess game on something resembling the surface of a sphere. It is similar to chess cubic, however I had not known about this game when I designed it. I do not have any plans to actually make it, although I thought perhaps it could be done with velcro.

Setup

The board consists of six 8*8 chessboards joined into a cube by the sharing of common edges:

^ square shared by 2 boards (edge square)
* triangle shared by 3 boards (vertex)

board 1

             board 4

        * ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ *

        ^ _ _ _ _ _ _ ^ 

        ^ _ _ _ _ _ _ ^ 

board 5 ^ _ _ _ _ _ _ ^  board 6

        ^ _ _ _ _ _ _ ^ 

        ^ _ _ _ _ _ _ ^ 

        ^ _ _ _ _ _ _ ^ 

        * ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ *

             board 2

board 2

             board 1

        * ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ *

        ^ _ _ _ _ _ _ ^ 

        ^ _ _ _ _ _ _ ^ 

board 5 ^ _ _ _ _ _ _ ^  board 6

        ^ _ _ _ _ _ _ ^ 

        ^ _ _ _ _ _ _ ^ 

        ^ _  _ _ _ _ _ ^ 

        * ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ *

             board 3

board 3

             board 2

        * ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ *

        ^ _ _ _ _ _ _ ^ 

        ^ _ _ _ _ _ _ ^ 

board 5 ^ _ _ _ _ _ _ ^  board 6

        ^ _ _ _ _ _ _ ^ 

        ^ _ _ _ _ _ _ ^ 

        ^ _ _ _ _ _ _ ^ 

        * ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ *

             board 4

board 4

             board 3

        * ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ *

        ^ _ _ _ _ _ _ ^ 

        ^ _ _ _ _ _ _ ^ 

board 5 ^ _ _ _ _ _ _ ^  board 6

        ^ _ _ _ _ _ _ ^ 

        ^ _ _ _ _ _ _ ^ 

        ^ _ _ _ _ _ _ ^ 

        * ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ *

             board 1

board 5

             board 1

        * ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ *

        ^ _ _ _ _ _ _ ^ 

        ^ _ _ _ _ _ _ ^ 

board 4 ^ _ _ _ _ _ _ ^  board 2

        ^ _ _ _ _ _ _ ^ 

        ^ _ _ _ _ _ _ ^ 

        ^ _ _ _ _ _ _ ^ 

        * ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ *

             board 3

board 6

             board 3

        * ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ *

        ^ _ _ _ _ _ _ ^ 

        ^ _ _ _ _ _ _ ^ 

board 4 ^ _ _ _ _ _ _ ^  board 2

        ^ _ _ _ _ _ _ ^ 

        ^ _ _ _ _ _ _ ^ 

        ^ _ _ _ _ _ _ ^ 

        * ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ *

             board 1

The shared edgesquares are to preserve bishop colourbinding. It is fairly clear why colourbinding on a cubic board without edge squares is impossible if you consider the three mutually adjacent squares at each vertex. The only rider peice which can move through vertices is the queen, although others can land on them (as diagonals change to orthagonals and orthagonals to diagonals at vertices)

Pieces start in the fide arrangement along one of the edges, with rooks on the vertices and pawns in front of and behind each peice, and in the squares diagonally adjacent the rooks. With 2 players, white peices start on the 1/4 shared edge and black peices the 2/3 shared edge, with 4 players they start on all the edges but those of boards 5 and 6.

Rules

Rules and pieces are the same as in FIDE except where stated otherwhise. pawns on boards 5 and 6 can move to either square orthagonally forwards or capture to the square diagonally forwards. Pawns are promothe on reaching their opponent's starting edge.

Rooks and bishops cannot go through vertices. queens move-lines change between rookwise and bishopwise when they go through vertices. Whether a knight's move is considered to be 2 squares in 1 direction then 1 square at right angles, 1 square diagonally then 1 orthagonally outwards etc. does not matter.

Notes

Other CVs

This modification can also be used for Shogi (with the rook and bishop on different sides of the home edge), and many other variants. It could theoretically be used for 3D chess, making a game on the surface of a hypercube, but this would probably not be practical or playable.

5*5

The 5*5 version is similar to the 8*8 version, but the board is smaller, each player has 2 queens and the pieces start on opposite faces rather than opposite edges:

ppppp

pqqbp

prkbp

prnnp

ppppp

Queens start near opponent queens, bishops opponent bishops etc. This setup means pawns only face the situations they do on boards 5 and 6 in the 8*8 version when they are on the far vertices. The solution is the same. There is no castling in this version.