Chess in a Toroidal Board

This variant begins with the Cylindrical 8 x 14 Variant . Then, the a and h columns are glued together.

	       Black
    a   b   c   d   e   f   g   h
  +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
14| P | P | P | P | P | P | P | P | 0
  +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
13|   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |-1        The 15th line is identical
  +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+          to the 1st, in other words,
12|   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |-2        the 9th line is the -5th.
  +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
11|   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |-3        White's pawns in the 2nd line
  +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+          or Black's pawns in the 9th
10|   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |-4        (or -5th) move forward.
  +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
 9| p | p | p | p | p | p | p | p |-5        White's pawns in the 0th
  +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+          (14th) or Black's pawns in
 8| r | n | b | q | k | b | n | r | 8        the 7th line move backwards.
  +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
 7| p | p | p | p | p | p | p | p | 7        The a and h columns are
  +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+          adjacent.
 6|   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   | 6
  +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
 5|   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   | 5
  +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+   
 4|   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   | 4
  +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+   
 3|   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   | 3
  +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+   
 2| P | P | P | P | P | P | P | P | 2
  +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+   
 1| R | N | B | Q | K | B | N | R | 1
  +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
    a   b   c   d   e   f   g   h
	     White

All other rules (castling, en-passant, promotion, etc) apply - but notice that the board has no center, so castling doesn't give any extra protection to the King.

A sample game could be:

1-   e4     e11
2-   c4     [attacking f7 with the Bishop and the Queen!]

Notice that a Bishop, in an empty board, controls half of the squares! Example: a Bishop initially at f1, moving along the f1-a6 diagonal, would keep going along h7-a14 (=a0), then along h1-a8, and so on.

This variant can lead to subvariants, or similar games:

Cylindrical Chess, the base subvariant, where the a and h columns are separated.
Klein Chess, if the glueing between the 11th/12th lines (or -3rd/-2nd) was done after a switching, so that a11 would glue to h12, etc.

Written by Alberto Monteiro, (email removed contact us for address) troin.com.br.

WWW page created: October 6, 1997.