Bureau-Spiel

The idea for this variant came from a proposed 24x8 board setup by Daniel Zacharias "just for fun", in an apparent reaction to a number of large board ideas of mine. I decided to run with it, by altering the setup more to my liking, without changing the piece types that are used, and I gave the idea the name Bureau-Spiel. Hence, Daniel at the least could be considered as a co-inventor of it. Note that besides the 6 piece types of standard chess, the 8 powerful unorthodox types here are in my earlier Officer-Spiel, and the 4 less powerful unorthodox types here are in my earlier Constable-Spiel.

A preset for play on Game Courier is available: Bureau-Spiel

Setup

Pieces

Bureau-Spiel uses the 6 piece types of chess, plus 12 unorthodox piece types.

The 8 most powerful unorthodox pieces are:

Amazon — Can move like a Queen or Knight.

Ship — Can move like a Rook, Knight, or Ferz. Also known as Heroine.

Freemason — Can move like a Bishop, Knight, or Wazir. Also known as Templar or Popess.

Chancellor — Can move like a Rook or Knight. Also commonly called Marshall.

Archbishop — Can move like a Bishop or Knight. Also commonly called Cardinal.

Sailor — Can move like a Rook or step one square diagonally like a Ferz. Known in Shogi as Dragon King.

Missionary — Can move like a Bishop or step one square orthogonally like a Wazir. Known in Shogi as Dragon Horse.

Judge — Can step one square in any direction like a non-royal King or leap like a Knight. More commonly known as Centaur.

The 4 less powerful unorthodox pieces are:

A Warmachinewazir - also known as a Woody Rook; it moves like a wazir (moves one step orthogonally, i.e. by rank or file) or like a dabbabah (leaps two squares orthogonally).

A Waffle - also known as a Phoenix; it moves like a wazir or alfil (leaping two squares diagonally).

A Kirin moves like a dabbabah or ferz (one step diagonally).

A Ferfil moves like an alfil or a ferz.

Rules

Bureau-Spiel follows the rules of chess, except where noted below.

The castling rules for Bureau-Spiel 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 Bureau-Spiel (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.

Last revised by Kevin Pacey.