Embassy Chess

Introduction

Embassy Chess was created by Kevin Hill in 2005. It follows in a line of 10x8 variants that include Carrera's Chess, Bird's Chess, and Capablanca's Chess. This one is based on Christian Freeling's Grand Chess. That game puts the Rooks in the corners of a 10x10 board with other pieces starting out in the second rank. This game compresses each player's first two ranks in Grand Chess into one rank.

Setup & Rules

This game extends the usual setup for Chess to ten files by inserting two new pieces between the King and the King's Bishop and by adding extra Pawns. The Marshall, which moves as a Rook or a Knight, goes beside the King, and the Cardinal, which moves as a Bishop or a Knight, goes between the Marshall and the King's Bishop. It is played exactly like Chess except that the King moves three spaces toward the Rook when castling, and besides the usual promotion options, a Pawn may promote to either of the new pieces.

Computer & Online Play

Embassy Chess is the main 10x8 variant played on Brain King.

If you have Zillions of Games installed on your computer, you can play this game. Download file: largechess.zip.

You can play Embassy Chess against other people online using Game Courier.

You can play Embassy Chess against Jocly on this website.

You can play Embassy Chess against your computer with the Windows program ChessV, which plays a variety of different Chess variants.

Equipment

The board shown above is made from cut-up mouse-pad style boards. See the Chess variant construction set page for further details.

The extra pieces are black and natural colored Chancellors and Archbishops from the Musketeer Chess variant kit. You can order it or the black and white versions from ebay here: