Gladiator Chess

In this chess variant, pawns (gladiators) are restricted to the inner 6x6 square of the board. Non-pawns (supporters) remain on the outer 28 squares, and are unable to capture or be captured; their purpose is to empower the pawns in the middle of the board with their own movement abilities.

This is a kind of "battle" chess, in that victory is attained by capturing all of the opponent's defenders (in this game, all of their pawns).

(This variant was almost called Arena Chess, but that name was already taken ...)

Setup

Rules

• A pawn move (which may be a capture); see below
• (Optional) A non-pawn move to any vacant square on the border of the board

A pawn may only be moved if it is diagonally in line with a friendly non-pawn, without any intervening pieces - in other words, if it is a "bishop's move" away from a non-pawn. The pawn is moved in the same way that the non-pawn is normally moved in FIDE Chess.

Note that it is illegal to move a pawn to a square on the outside border; pawns must remain in the inner 6x6 area of the board.

If there is no possible pawn move available, that part of the player's turn is skipped, and a non-pawn move must be made which will potentially make a pawn move possible on the next turn (unless there is no place to move a non-pawn which makes this possible). If both players are unable to move a pawn for two turns in a row each, the game is a draw.

Victory is attained when all of the opponent's pawns have been captured.

EXAMPLE

Here is a possible board position towards the end of the game:

From this starting point, the black pawn at:

• c5 can move like a rook (a7)
• c2 cannot move
• e3 can move like a rook (c1) or a knight (g1) or a king (h6)
• f7 can move like a bishop (h5)

... and the white pawn at:

• c4 can move like a rook (a6) or a bishop (f1), ie. like a queen
• e5 can move like a knight (b8) or a king (h2)
• d7 cannot move.

Assuming it is white's turn to move, white might take c5 with c4, and then free up d7 by moving the rook from a6 to c8.

Since f7 can now move like a knight (a2), black can reply by taking e5 with f7, and threaten d7 by moving the knight from a2 to a1.

Notes

VARIATIONS

An obvious variation is to remove the central 6x6 "arena":

• The setup is as for Gladiator Chess
• All pieces can move anywhere on the 8x8 board
• Non-pawns may only make normal FIDE Chess moves not involving capture
• A pawn may "capture" an opposing non-pawn, which is then placed on any vacant square by the capturing player
• In all other respects, the rules are the same as for Gladiator Chess

For want of a better name, the above variation is called Brawl Chess.