Morphing Chess II

  By Gerd P. Degens

The game requires a 9 x 9 board. A game with morph areas in which figures are upgraded and downgraded.

Setup

Pieces

Standard set of pieces - plus archbishop, chancellor and amazon. Details in the rule section.

Rules

Except for the following changes, the Fide rules apply.

There is no capturing en passant, castling takes place.
Bare king loses.
Stalemate is a win.

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Pawns 

Pawns are upgraded on the a- and i-file as follows: on

a4, a6, i4, i6 they become a queen, on
a3, a7, i3, i7 they become an archbishop and on
a2, a8, i2, i8 they become a chancellor.

If a pawn reaches the squares a1, a9, i1, i9 it becomes an amazon.

The upgrade achieved is retained, even if other fields of the a- and i-file are reached.
 

Rook, Knight, Bishop, Queen, Archbishop, Chancellor, Amazon

At the 5th rank, they become pawns. As pawns, they can mutate into a queen, archbishop, chancellor or amazon in the manner described above.
 

King

On the 5th rank, the king receives the move options of a pawn, but retains his royal appearance and his royal function.

Such a king, who thus reached the 5th rank, can promote on the a-file and the i-file.
He gets the move options of the following pieces on the following squares :

a4, a6, i4, i6 - queen
a3, a7, i3, i7 - archbishop
a2, a8, i2, i8 - chancellor
a1, a9, i1, i9 - amazon

Example: a king on the 5th rank reaches square a3 as the next square on the a-file and can move on as an archbishop. This does not change if it reaches further squares on the a- or i-file. To be able to move differently, the king must first visit the 5th rank again in order to reach other squares on the a- or i-file.

The king always retains his appearance and his royal function.

If such a king does not reach the a- or i-file again, it retains the move options of a pawn for the rest of the game.

Pieces (move options)

Pawn (Morphing Chess II) The pawn moves one or two squares sideways in both directions, or one square diagonally sideways, also in both directions. It does not jump over pieces.	Knight (double knight) The knight may move to one of the squares nearest to that on which it stands but not on the same rank, file or diagonal. With the double knight, the move options are doubled. This means that the knight can leap directly to a space two knight leaps away.
Bishop (Morphing Chess II) The bishop may move to 4 squares along a diagonal on which it stands. The bishop can jump over pieces.	Rook (Morphing Chess II) The rook may move to 4 squares along the file or the rank on which it stands. The rook can jump over pieces.
Queen (Morphing Chess II) The queen may move to 2 squares along the file, the rank or a diagonal on which it stands. The queen can jump over pieces.	Archbishop The archbishop is a hybrid piece of knight and bishop, whereby the bishop part may move to any square along a diagonal on which it stands.
Chancellor  The chancellor is a hybrid piece of knight and rook, whereby the rook part may move to any square along a file or the rank on which it stands.	Amazon The amazon is a hybrid piece of knight and queen, whereby the queen part may move to any square along the file, the rank or a diagonal on which it stands.
King Castling: This is a move of the king and either rook of the same colour along the player’s first rank, counting as a single move of the king and executed as follows: the king is transferred from its original square three squares towards the rook on its original square, then that rook is transferred to the square just next to the king.

Notes

Play it !

Morphing Chess II on Game Courier

Last revised by Gerd Degens.