Chess 68
Description
- Chess 68 is a game created by myself, basically in order to give more depth to standard chess.
- Experienced players can continue to use their opening strategies because new pieces get in action only after seveval moves, in order to give them the necessary space to walk outside.
- It looks like standard Chess, with the following modifications:
- * 4 more squares linked to the 4 corner squares (idea taken from "Omega Chess"), these squares take the coordinates as their ranks and files are present and contiguous: z0, i0 for white; z9, i9 for black
- * 2 more pieces:
- "the Prince" = P
- "the Princess" = S
The Set-Up
| 9 | P | S | ||||||||
| 8 | R | N | B | Q | K | B | N | R | ||
| 7 | p | p | p | p | p | p | p | p | ||
| 6 | ||||||||||
| 5 | ||||||||||
| 4 | ||||||||||
| 3 | ||||||||||
| 2 | p | p | p | p | p | p | p | p | ||
| 1 | R | N | B | Q | K | B | N | R | ||
| 0 | P | S | ||||||||
| n | a | b | c | d | e | f | g | h | i |
New Board setup
No further purchase of expensive chessboards for this variant: we can use the same standard chessboard to play Chess 68 !
Take a 8x8 chessboard and add the 4 corner chess by yourself, or just keep in memory the position of the 4 corner squares to play!
The new setup has been created looking at innovative "Omega Chess", in particular for those concerns the 4 corner squares that give the possibility to insert 2 new pieces for each side leaving the same armony in disposition of the chessboard. The main difference is the chessboard itself that is always 8x8, this to get easier for new people to play inside their own standard chessboards.
New pieces
- The Prince: Moves like a knight with the possibility to shift one square orthogonally.
- Can cover up to 16 squares, and great range of forks as it's still a leaper.
- Its power is maximum when used in defensive jobs or when the chessboard is still full of pieces.
- In the downside, its slow moving and quite far position at the start force it to move outside later.
- Like all the standard pieces except for the Knights, Prince must wait the development of other pieces before going into action, in this case external pawns or Knights.
- The Princess: Moves like a knight with the possibility to shift one square diagonally.
- Can cover up to 16 squares, and great range of forks as it's still a leaper.
- For the action, it is very similar to the Prince, except it can cover only squares of one color at a time. The possibility to shift diagonally instead of orthogonally gives it more attacking power than Prince and it's very powerful against Pawns.
Value of Pieces:
| Piece | Standard Chess | Chess 68 |
| Pawn | 1 | 1 |
| Knight | 3 | 3.5 |
| Bishop | 3 | 3.5 |
| Rook | 5 | 5 |
| Princess | - | 5 |
| Prince | - | 5.5 |
| Queen | 9 | 10 |
Minimum material to Mate:
- The final is the part that changes the more in opposition to standard Chess.
- The 4 new squares (acting like refuges) force players with little material to a tast force in order to mate an opposite king alone, because stalemate possibility increases and also because the attack against the corner square is very difficult (Rooks can't go there).
- The minimum material to force check-mate varies as follows:
- (As it's easy to note, Rook alone can't mate opposite king and even two rooks have to trouble to !)
- 1 Queen has no problem...
- 1 Prince alone may mate, can nearly force mate, but if opposite king plays correctly the game is draw
- 1 Princess can't mate
- 2 Bishops easily mate
- 1 Bishop alone may mate, but only if opposite king does a mistake going to a corner square of the same color
- 1 Bishop + 1 Knight mate easier than in standard chess
- 2 Knights new mate, however after quite a hard maneuvre
- 1 Rook can't mate
- 2 Rooks mate only if king can't reach one of the 4 safe squares
- Chess 68
- invented by Setti Roberto
Written by . Web page posted by David Howe.
WWW page created: 9 Feb 2001. Last modified on: 9 Feb 2001.