The Knightliest Black Hole

by João Pedro Neto - entry for "The 32-Turn Challenge"

1. All FIDE rules apply, except:
2. The Knighted pieces are:
   1. The Knight Duke, i.e., R+N
   2. The Knight Count, i.e., B+N
   3. The Knight
   4. The Paladin (check below)
3. The initial setup is as follow:
   1. White: Dukes at b1,g1; Counts at c1, f1; Knights at b2,c2,d2,e2,f2,g2; Queen at d1 and King at e1
   2. Black: Dukes at b8,g8; Counts at c8, f8; Knights at b7,c7,d7,e7,f7,g7; Queen at d7 and King at e7

4. At each turn, the White and Black players make: (a) a legal move, and (b) create an hole in the board. The hole cannot contain an opponent piece (i.e., it  must be empty or have one friendly piece). Here is a 1st turn example: 1. Ncd4 (c5) NBd6 (h2)

5. No piece may cross an Hole, but a Knighted piece may jump them if it is within its range.
6. There is an extra kind of move, the Swap. A Knighted piece may swap is position with its King or Queen. But doing the swap, that piece is eliminated. The next example shows how Black escapes Checkmate, by sacrificing the c5 Knight in a swap.

7. If a Knight reaches the last rank, it is promoted to Paladin. A Paladin has the Knight moves plus the (3,1) jump piece moves (i.e. jumps 3 squares rookwise, and land to the left or right. Using this notation, the Knight would be a (2,1) piece). In the last example, the g7 Knight is trapped within the g7-h4 squares. If the Knight was a Paladin, it could also jump to d6 checking the White King.
8. A player looses by:
   1. Checkmate;
   2. Stalemate;
   3. If he cannot insert an hole.