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This page is written by the game's inventor, Charles Gilman.

Small Game Nearlydoubles

Having applied the Mitred Framing principle to 6x6 variants such as Diana I realised that other variations could be applied as well. This family of variants applies to them the Nearlydouble principle of having twice as many of every capturable piece, except perhaps Pawns or their analogues, and nearly twice the cells. Nearlydoubles of corresponding 7-file small variants can be found in the notes to this page.

Setup

NEARLYDOUBLE ARIANA has no Catapults (see below). As with Mitred Framing and Mini Fivequarters, I implement my suggestion of the name Ariana (All-radial Diana) for my own spinoffs of Haynie's Primary Chess.

NEARLYDOUBLE DIANA has no Queens.

NEARLYDOUBLE ELECTRA has neither Kings nor Queens, and doubles the whole Electra back rank.

NEARLYDOUBLE LOS ALAMOS has no Bishops.

NEARLYDOUBLE MINERVA has no Kings, and doubles the entire Minerva back rank.

NEARLYDOUBLE SYLVIA has no Pawns and no promotion, and with so many Catapults (see below) about you must be very careful where you move a piece.

Pieces

As the Knight comes out of the enlargement rather weak compared to other pieces - in this context weaker than the Bishop rather than stronger as is the case on 6x6 boards - I enhance it to the CATAPULT described in Man and Beast 08: Diverse Directions by adding the 3:0 leap, as unblockable as the 2:1 one.

Other pieces are, as regards their general powers, the FIDE ones.

Rules

Pawns have an optional double-step noncapturing move from the second rank but not the third. If they make it they can immediately be captured En Passant, as if they had made only the single-step move, by an enemy Pawn starting anywhere.

Castling is as FIDE Kingside, between the King and either outer Rook. Inner Rooks, and variants without Kings, have no Castling.

Pawns reaching the enemy's second rank may, and those reaching its first must, be promoted to another capturable piece in the array.

Check, Checkmate, and Stalemate are as in FIDE Chess, except in ND Electra and ND Minerva. Victory in those two is by capturing trhe entire enemy army.

Subvariants include playing ND Diana with Bachelor Chess rules and ND Electra and ND Minerva with Kinglet rules.

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By Charles Gilman.
Web page created: 2010-11-06. Web page last updated: 2016-04-01