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This page is written by the game's inventor, Dan Troyka.

Mesmer Chess

By W. D. Troyka

Rules

Mesmer Chess introduces a new piece -- the Mesmerist -- that has the power of mind control. The Mesmerist moves like a Queen but cannot capture. Rather than move, the Mesmerist may elect to move any enemy piece that it attacks. An enemy piece so moved is said to be mesmerized. The move must be a legal move for the enemy piece, except that the piece now captures its friends. For example, if the White Mesmerist attacks the Black Rook, White may choose to move the Black Rook in normal Rook-wise fashion, with any capture being of another Black piece. Moving the enemy piece in this manner counts as a turn. The mesmerized piece, in the example the Black Rook, is temporarily frozen and cannot be moved by its owner on the next turn. A Mesmerist cannot mesmerize the enemy Mesmerist.

The game is won by capturing the enemy King or Mesmerist. The King and Mesmerist can move into check, and the King can be moved into check by the Mesmerist. Pawns cannot promote to Mesmerists.

The game begins with the standard chess array plus the White Mesmerist on d4 and the Black Mesmerist on d7. Normal chess rules otherwise apply.

Mesmerist piece from Zillions implementation

         The Mesmerist

Mesmer Chess setup

Notes

Mesmer Chess is a companion game to Hypnotic Chess, which also uses mind control.

Computer Play

An implementation of Mesmer Chess has been written for Zillions of Games.


Written by W. D. Troyka.
WWW page created: May 26th, 2003.