Large Nahbi Chess

Large Nahbi Chess is a further development of Nahbi Chess.

The pieces are the same pieces. The starting array is different. The board is 10x12 instead of 10x10 In Nahbi Chess the Archer and the Alfil are initially in-hand and dropped on the board during the game. In Large Nahbi Chess they're on the board from the start and there are no drops. Since the board is larger the Equator is located between the 6th and the 7th ranks

Setup

+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
| r | a | c | b | k | q | b | c | a | r |
+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
|   | f | m |   |   |   |   | m | f |   |
+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
| p | p | p | p | p | p | p | p | p | p |
+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
|   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |
+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
|   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |
+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
|   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |
+================equator================+
|   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |
+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
|   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |
+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
|   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |
+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
| P | P | P | P | P | P | P | P | P | P |
+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
|   | F | M |   |   |   |   | M | F |   |
+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
| R | A | C | B | Q | K | B | C | A | R |
+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+

Pieces

King (K) - same as chess King
Queen (Q) - same as chess queen, with the exception, that in order to cross the Equator, either the starting square, or the ending square of the move must be adjacent to to the Equator, that is on the 6th or 7th rank.
Bishop (B) - same as chess bishop
Rook (R) - same as chess rook
Camel (C) - a slightly longer knight. moves 3 squares in any orthogonal direction + 1 square in a direction perpendicular to the direction. It can skip over any intervening pieces.
Nahbi (M) - Nahbi moves two squares diagonally, and then one square orthogonally, in that order. On an empty board, this gives the Nahbi 16 possible moves. A piece on e5, for instance,would partially, block a Nahbi on d4, because it would be unable to make the diagonal move in that direction.
In addition the Nahbi has a non-capturing move. A Nahbi can leap over an occupied orthogonally adjacent square, to the next square, regardless of the color of the piece in the adjacent square, however, it cannot skip over a vacant square. This allows a Nahbi in the initial position to leap from c1 to c3, over the pawn.
Alfil (F) - Same as Chaturnaga Alfil. Jumps two diagonally, regardless of intervening pieces. With the exception that it can't cross the Equator (like the Chinese Chess elephant).
Archer (A) - This piece is also a shorter range version of a similar piece originally devised for Ackanomic Party Chess. The Archer has a non-capturing move, first it moves n squares in any orthogonal direction, where n is either 1,2, or 3, and then it moves 3-n moves in a direction perpendicular to the first direction. An Archer can't cross the Equator. The Archer captures from a distance. That is, it captures without moving. It can capture a piece in any orthogonal direction which is up to 3 squares away, provided all intervening squares are vacant, and both the Archer and the captured piece are on the same side of the Equator. In any turn, an Archer may either move or capture, but not do both.
Pawn (P) - Similar to the standard chess pawn, including the initial two-square move. Moves straight, captures digonally. After the pawn crosses the Equator, it gains the additional power of moving one square horizontally, like the move forward, this is a non-capturing move, and such a pawn still captures diagonally. A pawn that reaches the opponent's first rank, may promote to Q,R,B,C,M.

Rules

Castling and en-passant are the same as in standard chess. A player left with only King, Archers and Alfils, while the opponent's King is on the other side of the Equator, loses the game. Since neither Archers no Alfils can cross the Equator, it is impossible for this player to even check the opposing King. All other rules are the same as FIDE chess.

Notes

Some chess variants are named for a feature that distinguishes them from standard chess. Likewise, this variant is named for a particular piece - Nabi. The Nabi in this game is a shorter range version of a piece that was originally devised for Ackanomic Party Chess. While I was writing the original rules for that one, and through later amendments, a player, whose nickname in Ackanomic was Mohammed, made significant contributions. I decided it would be appropriate to name a piece in honor of this player. I called the piece il-Nabi - Arabic for "the Prophet". Later I considered that a similar piece could be used in a more "traditional" variant as well, and I came up with this one. I mark the piece with the letter M. Pronunciation note - Nahbi is pronouces with an emphasis on the first syllable. Nah as in the na in manna, bi as in bee, but shorter.

The letters N,M can also stand for Nahvi - Hebrew for Prophet - and Moshe (Moses)

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 Uri Bruck.
Web page created: 2008-11-09. Web page last updated: 2008-11-09

Comments

Large Nahbi Chess. Missing description (10x12, Cells: 120)

TH6 wrote on Sat, Mar 18, 2017 04:17 PM EDT:Average ★★★

I requested a game of this because I was very intrigued by the mix of pieces, though I think the game was shorted by it's need for rule clarifications.

A few things that I found only through research:
- The movement of the Nahbi. The diagonal movements of the Nahbi do not change direction. Thus, a Nahbi moves two spaces diagonally in the same direction, then one square in any orthogonal direction, in that order.
- Castling. The correlation to FIDE chess is that it moves 2 squares left or right, not that the king ends in the same board position as in FIDE. This was verified by downloading an external program (Zillions of Games) and loading the rules the inventor programmed.

Once I found out how the Nahbi moved, I quite enjoyed the piece. The non capturing move increases the mobility, while limiting it to being a sliding piece (instead of jumping) ensured that it wasn't too powerful. I'd love to see it in other variants.

The Archer is a very good defensive unit and I feel is quite enough of a force to protect the king. The Alfil, however, was useless. In a 36 move game, neither players moved their Alfils and only one played a role in piece protection. Limiting them to one side of the equator gives it 7 squares to protect, making them MUCH weaker than a pawn that has already crossed the equator. Had the game continued, I would have been happy to exchange both of mine for a crossed pawn each. If the piece is necessary to the game, I'd recommend removing the limit of remaining on one side of the equator only.

I did like the limit on the queen crossing the equator. Seemed very fitting to make it a "short range" piece.

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