Cyclohex

This variant combines elements of Tryzantine Chess and McCooey's hex Chess. The name is of course inspired by the chemical compound cyclohexane, which is actually an isomer of hexene (C₆H₁₂) but ends in hexane because all its bonds are single.

Setup

There are five clearly defined files which wrap around, as in Turn Qi, but ranks are less obvious. Unlike in Glinski and McCooey, where they differ between players, here they differ between Brokers going in opposite directions.

Pieces

The ROOK (R) moves up to 22 steps through empty intermediate cells along any orthogonal. The restriction of move length is to prevent null moves. There are 2 Rooks aside.

The UNICORN (U) moves up to 4 steps through empty intermediate cells along any hex diagonal. The restriction is inherent in the board shape, as is that of the Bishop in Byzantine and Tryzantine Chess. There are 3 Unicorns aside, one for each binding.

The DUCHESS (D) is the compound of Rook and Unicorn, and can move as either. There is 1 Duchess aside.

The GRANDDUKE (G) moves like a Duchess but only one step, and must be kept out of Check. There is 1 Grandduke aside.

The SENNIGHT (S) makes any root-7 leap - to the nearest cells not accessible to a Duchess - and cannot be blocked. There are 2 Sennights aside.

The BROKER (B) moves one step directly away from (and not through) its own camp. It does this along a file except when capturing, which it does along a hex diagonal. There are 10 Brokers aside, 5 facing each way. If you prefer to distinguish between them you can do so in the prefixed-symmetric pattern outlined in Man and Beast 15 and term them CLOCKWAITERS and ANTICLOCKWAITERS, but this is not strictly necessary as they go less than a third of the way round the board before being promoted and the two groups never meet up.

Rules

Play proceeds anticlockwise, starting with Red.

Brokers have an optional double-step noncapturing initial move. If they make one they can immediately be captured En Passant by an unpreomoted enemy Broker as if they had moved only the single step.

There is no Castling.

An unpromoted Broker cannot enter a starting rank of enemy Brokers moving in the same direction. On reaching the previous rank - 7 ranks ahead of their own starting rank, as in McCooey's game - it must be promoted to Rook, Unicorn, Duchess, or Sennight.

A player whose Grandduke is En Prise to the player about to move is Checkmated and their pieces removed from the board. The Checkmating player then makes their move and play proceeds with the remaining players. The first player Checkmated loses and the last to survive wins.

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By Charles Gilman.
Web page created: 2010-01-23. Web page last updated: 2010-01-23