WAD Chess

WAD Chess is chess on a 10x8 board with added WADs, a piece type also known as Champions

This variant's design was inspired by my desire to use a symmetrically moving piece type along with a FIDE army, and the fact that a WAD plus K can deliver mate vs. lone K reasonably quickly (on 10x8) gave using the WAD piece type a bonus (and this piece's mating potential also inspired my later inventing certain 10x10, 12x8 and 12x10 variants that included the type, for the sake of using it on various board sizes of varying degrees of popularity).

There is a preset available for play on Game Courier.

Setup

Pieces

This game uses one unorthodox piece type:

The WAD piece type used in this game (depicted by figurine for Champion [CH], as it is also known) is a triple compound piece that can move as a wazir (i.e. it can move one square orthogonally, that is by rank or file), or it can move as an alfil (i.e. it can leap two squares diagonally), or it can move as a dabbabah (i.e. it can leap two squares orthogonally).

Rules

The castling rules for WAD Chess are as follows: A king that has never moved, and is not in check, can 'leap' once a game, along the first rank, to any unattacked empty square between it and an unmoved rook, followed by said rook 'leaping' to the king's initial square so as to complete castling in one single move. It does not matter if any squares in between are occupied or under attack.

Threefold repetition of position or stalemate is a draw as in standard chess, and the 50 move rule is also in effect in WAD Chess (i.e. game drawn if no captures or pawn moves have been made before 50 consecutive moves by both sides). Pawns move as in chess, and can promote to any piece type included in the setup, except for a king.

Notes

For this game's 10x8 board I tentatively put P=1; N=3.38(or 3.25 approx.); B=3.75; WAD(or Champion)=4.29(or 4.25 approx.); R=5.5; Q=R+B+P=10.25 and K's fighting value=3.2. Note that a WAD plus a K can force mate vs. lone K (on 10x8) in well under 50 moves. Fast castling rules are used in this variant to try to facilitate king safety and development. Note that all the pawns are protected in the setup.

Last revised by Kevin Pacey.