Centaur Princess Chess

Centaur Princess Chess is chess on a 10x8 board with added Centaurs and Princesses - the latter also known as Archbishops

This variant's design was inspired by my desire to use precisely these two piece types together in one game. Namely 'crowned' knights (Centaurs) and 'knighted' bishops (Princesses). Thus the two types of orthodox chess minor pieces are 'honored' in different ways, by being crowned or knighted repectively (so, to coin a phrase, they are 'the honored minor pair'). I thought this could be a refreshing change from having the BN (Princess) piece type along with the RN type in each of two opposing armies, as is the case in a huge number of variants to date, as if by tradition. After a bit of moving pieces around, starting from one setup I tried for this variant, I began to realize it might be a good idea to use Reverse Symmetry for the setup, and that is how the game's final setup came to be.

There is a preset available for play on Game Courier: Centaur Princess Chess

Setup

Pieces

Centaur Princess Chess uses the 6 standard piece types of chess. Aside from that, this game uses two unorthodox piece types:

The Centaur can move like a knight or non-royal king.

The Princess can move like a knight or a bishop.

Rules

Centaur Princess Chess follows the rules of chess except as noted below.

The castling rules for Centaur Princess Chess 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 Centaur Princess Chess (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.