Check out Janggi (Korean Chess), our featured variant for November, 2024.

This page is written by the game's inventor, Zhedric Meneses. This game is a favorite of its inventor.

16Chess

Hello. This is the 1st variant I have ever made. I made this chess variant after surfing through this website thinking that I could make one. I was motivated to make this by several games in ChessV. I tried to make this at least fun and if I failed, at least I learned something. The 16 part in 16Chess is based on how many squares royal pieces move at most.

Setup

Pieces

Pawn Moves as in Chess
Rook Moves as in Chess
Bishop Moves as in Chess
Knight Moves like a Nightrider
Man Moves like a King but without the Royal Status
Unicorn Moves like a Zebra or a Camel(Formerly Moves like a Knight or a Camel)
​​​​​ Giraffe Moves like a Ferz or a Dabbaba
Phoenix Moves like an Alfil or a Wazir
Queen*

Moves like a 2 Square Queen

Cardinal* Moves like a 2 Square Bishop or a Knight
Marshall* Moves like a 2 Square Rook or a Knight
Duke* Moves like a Centaur
Sovereign* Moves like a Squirrel
Guard Moves like a Non Royal Major Piece(See Rules for More Info)

* - Major Piece(Best Term I can think of)

Rules

The Rules are the following

1. Before the game starts, Each player chooses 4 of the 5 Major pieces to be the royal pieces. The remaining major piece will be the move of the Guard. Example: White chooses Duke, Cardinal, Marshall, and Sovereign to be the royals. White's Guard will move like a Queen(This Variant's Queen not the Chess Queen)

2. Each player must place their royal pieces in d1, e1, f1, g1 in any order(d10, f10, e10, g10 if you're Black)

3a. The Royals can be captured instead of being checkmated so that means the royal pieces can move into an attacking square but that's silly of course

3b. The Game ends if 2-3 royals are captured

4. You win the game if you bare the royals of the other player(Former Rule: The Game ends if the remaining pieces are royal. The Number of Royals you have left decides the outcome.)

5. No Castling

6. Pawns may not promote into a captured royal piece

The rest are the same as in Chess

Notes

I have thought of 2 simple subvariants that just changes how the pieces move

1. The Queen, Marshall, and Cardinal may jump on their Rook and/or Bishop moves

2. Giraffe may move like Ferz or Alfil, and Phoenix may move like Wazir or Dabbaba

Also for Notation:

Pawn - O(for Soldier and S is taken by Sovereign)

Rook - R

Bishop - B

Knight - K

Unicorn - U

Guard - G

Man - A(M is taken by Marshall)

Phoenix - P

Giraffe - I(G is taken by Guard)

Queen - Q

Cardinal - C

Marshall - M

Duke - D

Sovereign - S



This 'user submitted' page is a collaboration between the posting user and the Chess Variant Pages. Registered contributors to the Chess Variant Pages have the ability to post their own works, subject to review and editing by the Chess Variant Pages Editorial Staff.


By Zhedric Meneses.

Last revised by Zhedric Meneses.


Web page created: 2020-11-03. Web page last updated: 2020-11-03