Rate Big Battle for the 100 Squares Contest
Big Battle
PCT Patent Appin No. PCT/NZ95.00131
Big Battle is a Trade Mark of Big Battle Games
Copyright Big Battle Games 1996
Introduction
Big Battle ( Big Bat for Short ) follows in the great tradition of Chess. M K Morrison invented Big Battle in 1994. The game was-fined to its final form in 1998. The first years of its creation involved play testing against orthodox chess Master Ortvin Sarapu (twenty time New Zealand Chess Champion). The final rule change came at the suggestion of the then New Zealand Champion Alexei Kulashko . Big Battle used Chess as a starting point but it becomes a different game. Chess players, even children, have found Big Battle an easy game to pick up.
Description
Big Battle is played on a 10 by 10 chequer board of a hundred squares. Because of the enhanced size of the Big Battle Board, the Big Battle counterpart of the Chess Pawn, called a Soldier ( Sol for short) has the option of moving three squares, two squares or one square forward. Unlike the Chess pawn the Big Battle Soldier has these options not only on its first move but throughout the game. The en-passant rules of Big Battle allow capture by en-passant whenever an enemy Soldier on an adjacent file attempts to sneak past by moving two or three squares. The other big difference seen in Big Battle consists of a new and powerful piece called the Prince. The Prince combines the power of the Chess Knight and the Big Battle Queen. But the Big Battle Queen itself has greater powers than the Chess Queen. In addition to the traditional powers of the Chess Queen the Big Battle Queen can jump over an immediately adjacent piece (but cannot move like a Knight). The Big Battle King has the ability to move two squares. He also, can jump over an immediately adjacent piece. The Big Battle Knight has the option, while positioned on its back rank of making a double Knight move, known as the double Knight hop, providing that no piece occupies the intermediate square of this manoeuvre. The Big Battle Bishop moves exactly the same way as the Chess Bishop. Off course the enhanced Big Battle chequer board gives it more squares to move to. All Big Battle pieces, except for the Bishop, have greater powers than the corresponding traditional Chess piece.
Please click here if you have any questions.
The opening position
The King in Big Battle can move one or two squares and also hop over an adjacent piece. This makes him a rather more elusive prey than the ordinary Chess King. In castling both the King and the Rook have greater freedom of movement and freedom of choice than in Chess. See the section on castling.
The King can hop over an immediately adjacent piece.
In the diagram above the blue rectangle indicates the squares to which the king can hop .
Please see the section on castling to and read the more liberal castling rules for the Big Battle King.
The Big Battle Sol has evolved from the Chess Pawn. Like the Chess pawn the Sol takes diagonally. The Chess pawn can move one or two squares on its first move. Provided the Sol is unobstructed it can move one two or three squares on any move through out the game ( not just only for its first move ).
Sol capture
Green dots highlight the squares to which the white Sol can make a non-capturing move. The red dot indicates a black Sol available for capture using the diagonal capturing move.
As in Chess the Big Battle Sol has the option of taking in passing any enemy Sol on an adjacent file that passes it. The en-passant capture can be made only it the en-passant capture option is exercised on the move immediately following the passing move.
In the diagram above the white Sol has just moved. Blue squares enclose the square he moved from and the square he moved to. The black Sol he attempts to bypass has the power under the en-passant rule to take him on the square indicated by the red dot. The white Sol has moved three squares but the black Sol can take him as though he had moved only two squares. The green dots show the normal moves that the black Sol can make instead of taking the white Sol in passing.
This shows another example of en-passant. The white sole has just moved. The black sol it passed by has the option of taking it on the square with the red dot. The white Sol has moved three squares, but the back Sol can take it as though it had moved only two squares.
The Big Battle Queen has all the powers of the Chess Queen along with the ability to hop over an immediately adjacent obstructing piece. The Big Battle Queen can not move like a Chess Knight.
Below see how the Big Battle Queen can hop over immediately adjacent obstructing piece of either colour.
An unobstructed Queen can travel on ranks, files and diagonals. If obstructed by any adjacent piece of either colour it can jump over that piece. The said jump completes the Queen's move. It cannot jump and travel in the same turn.
The Big Battle Prince combines the powers of movement of the Big Battle Queen and the Chess Knight. This means that the Big Battle Prince can move like a Chess Queen, hop over an immediately adjacent obstruction, and move like a Chess Knight.
See below how the Big Battle Prince can hop over immediately adjacent pieces or move like a Chess Knight.
In the example above the green dots indicate the moves of the Prince when unempeded along ranks and files and diagonals. The squares which the Prince can reach by hoping over an adacent piece are marked with red dots. The yellow dots show the squares the Prince can reach by moving like a Chess Knight.
The Prince has the role of the best "Hit Man" for checkmating the opponent's king. Conversely, the Prince can become greatest defender of your own King. The Big Battle King has ways to approach and attack the Big Battle Queen without moving into check because the Big Battle King can move like a Chess Knight but the Queen cannot. However, since the Prince also has the Knight move the King cannot approach and attack him.
The Big Battle Bishop moves the same way as the Chess Bishop. The only difference is that the Big Battle Bishop has an increased range by reason of the bigger chequer board. In contrast, all the other Big Battle pieces have enhanced powers compared to their Chess counterparts.
The Big Battle Knight moves like the Chess Knight except when it occupies a square on its home rank.
The Big Battle Knight while on its home rank has the option of making a "double hop". It may make two moves in the one turn, provided only that it makes the first part of its move by way of an empty square. In other words the double hop sometimes be obstructed by a piece of either colour. The Big Battle Knight regains the power of the double hop when ever it returns to its home rank (not necessarily its home square).
The green circles show the intermediate destination squares for the knight double hop. The red circles show the final destination squares. The second stage of a double knight hop can only take place from an empty intermediate square. The Big Battle Knight also retains the power to make just the ordinary Chess Knight move to the squares shown with green circles.
The Big Battle Knight regains the power of the double knight hop when ever it returns to its home rank. In the diagram above it occupies a central square of the home rank. Notice the greatly increased number of squares the Knight can reach. Again the green circles show the regular knight move or the intermediate square of a double knight hop. The red circles indicate the destination squares available to a double hopping Knight.
Off course these diagrams show the unimpeded power of the Big Battle Knight on an empty board. Below we see a more realist situation.
The red circles show the available double knight hops, all from the empty intermediate square indicated by the green circle. The empty blue squares show the double knight hops the Knight cannot make because the required intermediate square has a piece occupying it. See the occupied blue square.
The increased power of the Big Battle Knight on is home rank makes him a very strong defensive piece. In the end game a Knight on the bank rank may take care of the defence of many pieces simultaneously.
The above illustrates a Big Battle Knight on its home rank defending all the pieces shown on the board. It defends Sols on squares of both colours and also the Rook. Notice that the Rook protects the Knight which in turn protects the Rook. They make their own little "mutual protection society". This certainly has no counterpart in standard Chess.
The Big Battle Rook moves the same way as the Chess Rook as shown below when making its regular move. But see the section on Big Battle castling because Big Battle has far more liberal castling rules than traditional Chess.
Castling
Big Battle has far more liberal rules for castling compared with traditional Chess. In contrast to traditional Chess Big Battle allows the King to castle out of check. While castling the Big Battle King may pass over squares that enemy pieces attack. However, the King can still only land on a destination square that has no threats from enemy pieces. When castling, a Big Battle King that has not previously moved, can precede one or more squares on his home rank towards a Rook that has not previously moved. The Rook then hops over the square now occupied by the King and lands on the square adjacent to the King on the back rank. The Rook has the option of finishing there or he may continue any further number of unobstructed squares. If he meets an enemy obstructing piece he may take it. This can startle a player used to traditional Chess
Castling on the King Side.
The green dots below indicate squares accessible to the King by his normal move. The yellow dots show destinations that the King can reach either by his normal move or as part of the manoeuvre of castling towards his kingside Rook. The King can reach the square with the red dot only as a result of castling. In the second stage of the castling manoeuvre the rook then hops over the final destination square of the King and alights on the square to the left of the king on the back rank.
Take the example of where the King moves two squares to the right towards his Rook as shown below. The Rook moves a total of six squares towards the left in this example. The blue dots indicate other possible destinations for the Rook which the rules of Big Battle castling allow.
Castling on the Queenside
The green dots below indicate squares accessible to the King by his normal move. The yellow dots show destinations that the King can reach either by his normal move or as part of the manoeuvre of castling towards his queenside Rook. Because of the presence of the black Queen on the home rank of white obviously the white King cannot make a normal move to the yellow dotted squares because he would remain in check contrary to the rules of Big Battle. However, in Big Battle the King may castle out of check. This differs from traditional Chess where the King cannot castle out of check. The King can reach a square with a red dot only as a result of castling. In the second stage of the castling manoeuvre the rook then hops over the final destination square of the King and alights on the square to the right of the king on the back rank.
Take the example of where the King moves one square to the left towards his Rook that has not moved on his queenside. The Rook The Rook hops over the King and may alight in any of the squares inside the green rectangle below. The enemy Queen obstructs further movement of the Rook, but the rules of Big Battle castling allow the Rook to capture a hostile obstruction. The diagram below shows the case where white took the choice of capturing the enemy obstruction and the Rook stands on the square that the black Queen formally occupied before its capture. This would definitely startle a player used to traditional Chess.
Play It!
Use Zillions of Games to play this game! If you have Zillions of Games installed, you can download this game and play it.Written by David Milne. Big Battle Home Page (Link.)
WWW page created: October 16, 1999.