Echexs

Below, you can read a description of Jean-Louis Cazaux of a hexagonal chess variant, he based on hexagonal chess variants by Dave Mc Cooey and Stephen P. Kennedy, which he created in 1998.

Another hexagonal chess again ? Well, this is not exactly a new game. It is more a fusion between two already announced hex chess to create an optimized 3 or 6 players game.

The first one is Chexs from Stephen P.Kennedy which brings the good idea of grouping all piece on corners rather than placing them along the sides. For games for more than 2 players, this avoids a contact between opposite forces. My very personal point of view is that the weakness in this game is the use of only 2 Bishops placed on the same color. The second game has the solution. It is Hexagonal Chess from Dave McCooey which uses all possible piece. Its initial arrangement is more compact than the traditional Glinski's game. If for 2 players I prefer Glinski's, I think that McCooey's is very well suited for more crowdy board like for 3 or 6 players.

Rules

Players

The game is played with three or six players.

Materials and setup

The setup for the three-player game is:

The setup for the six-player game is:

The board is a 6-cases side hexagon (91 cases) for the 3-players game, and a 9-cases side hexagon (217 cases) for the 6-players game. In both games every player has 16 men : 1 King, 1 Queen, 3 Bishops, 2 Knights, 2 Rooks and 7 Pawns. The King is always on the right side of the Queen.

Moves and captures

To be consistent with Glinski's chess which is the most famous of Hexagonal chess, all piece move and capture as in this game. (Let's point out that this differs from original move of Kennedy's King and McCooey's Pawn).

The game is played clockwise.

It is a one-against-all game.

Other rules

Initial double step and en-passant Pawn rules are identical to Glinski's.

The Pawn may promote when reaching one of the 11 (3-p) or 17 (6-p) case on the opposite sides on the board.

End of game

As for any game for more than 2 players, several scenarios are possible. The simplest is to adopt the following rules :

A checked player should try to remove it when it is his turn of play.

A checkmated player is eliminated. His King is removed and his piece go under the control of the player who initiated the first check which led to checkmat. His Pawn still continue to move in the same direction.

The payer who take control of another's pieces does not take is turn to play.

Any comments ?

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