Morphomania
By Gerd P. Degens
The game requires a 9 x 9 board. The pieces change depending on the color of the square reached or the rank achieved.
Setup
Pieces
Standard set of pieces - plus archbishop, chancellor, amazon and dragon horse. Details in the rule section.
Rules
Except for the following changes, the Fide rules apply.
There is no capturing en passant, castling and promotion of pawns takes place.
Bare king loses.
Stalemate is a win.
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With the exception of the pawns, pieces are played as in standard chess - regarding archbishop, chancellor, amazon and dragon horse see below.
In Morphomania pieces change their appearance and function depending on the color of the squares they reach or the rank they achieve.
The king is excluded from this.
In general:
Bishop:The bishop becomes a dragon horse on the even ranks with additional move options of the wazir; on the odd ranks, the bishop's move options remain.
Knight:
If the knight changes from white square to black square it becomes a chancellor (additional moves of the bishop); back to white square the moves of a knight remain.
Rook:
If the black rook changes to white square, it can also move as a knight - and v.v.
Queen.
The white queen becomes an Amazon when moving to black square - and v.v.
Pawns:
Pawns can move a maximum of two squares forward on white squares, on black squares they become 'Speedpawns', with the possibility of moving a maximum of 3 squares forward.
In detail:
Bishop / Dragon Horse
The following table illustrates the changes:
| Odd Rank | Even Rank |
|---|---|
 |
 |
A bishop on ranks 1, 3, 5, 7, 9 remains a bishop. At ranks 2, 4, 6, 8, the bishop mutates into a dragon horse.
A dragon horse at ranks 2, 4, 6, 8 mutates into a bishop when it gets to ranks 1, 3, 5, 7 or 9.
Knight, Rook, Queen, Archbishop, Chancellor, Amazon, Pawns
The following table illustrates the changes:
| White Square | Black Square |
|---|---|
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
The rook mutates from black square to white square to a chancellor and back again from white square to black square to a rook.
The knight mutates from white square to black square to an archbishop and vice versa.
The queen becomes an amazon when changing from white square to black square; the amazon becomes a queen again when changing from black square to white square.
A pawn remains a pawn on white squares. As soon as it reaches a black square, it mutates into a speedpawn.
In reverse, the speedpawn mutates into a pawn when it moves from a black to a white square.
The bishop, knight, rook, and queen move as in standard chess.
Dragon Horse
The dragon horse moves like a bishop or one step orthogonally.
The dragon horse and bishop can change color diagonals using the dragon horse's wazir move option!
Archbishop
The archbishop is a hybrid piece of knight and bishop.
Chancellor
The chancellor is a hybrid piece of knight and rook.
Amazon
The amazon is a hybrid piece of knight and queen.
Pawn (Morphomania)
The pawn moves one square forward and captures opposing pieces. If an opponent's piece is two squares away, it can be captured if there is no other piece in between. The pawn does not jump over pieces.
Speedpawn (Morphomania)
The speedpawn moves one or two squares forward and captures opposing pieces. If an opponent's piece is three squares away, it can be captured if there is no other piece in between. The pawn does not jump over pieces.
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 !
Morphomania on Game Courier
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By Gerd P. Degens.
Web page created: 2024-03-20. Web page last updated: 2024-06-05