Check out Janggi (Korean Chess), our featured variant for December, 2024.

This page is written by the game's inventor, Hubert Lamontagne.

TheBridge41

by Hubert Lamontagne

TheBridge41 plays on the following board:
  L   l   m   r   R
 ___ ___ ___ ___ ___
|   |   |   |   |   |
| î | ï | ± | ï | î | z
|___|___|___|___|___|
|   |   |   |   |   |
| ? | i | i | i | ? | y
|___|___|___|___|___|
|   |   |   |   |   |
|   |   |   |   |   | x
|___|___|___|___|___|
|   |   |   |   |   |
|   |   |   |   |   | w
|___|___|___|___|___|
~~~~~~~~|   |~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~|   |~~~~~~~~ k (The bridge)
 ___ ___|___|___ ___
|   |   |   |   |   |
|   |   |   |   |   | d
|___|___|___|___|___|
|   |   |   |   |   |
|   |   |   |   |   | c
|___|___|___|___|___|
|   |   |   |   |   |
| ? | i | i | i | ? | b
|___|___|___|___|___|
|   |   |   |   |   |
| î | ï | ± | ï | î | a
|___|___|___|___|___|
  L   l   m   r   R

Pieces

i: Pawn
?: Knight
î: Bishop
ï: Rook
±: King

All Fide rules apply, except:

  1. No double pawn move
  2. No en-passant
  3. No castling
  4. No promotion to queen

Note that the Knights can jump over the "river".

Analysis

The "bridge" becomes a very important square.

Pawns - Must pass on the bridge to go to the other side. Gets stuck on Ld, Rd, Lw and Rw

Bishop - Can't go to the other side if the bridge is blocked. All the bishops are one the same color.

Rook - Can't go to the other side if the bridge is blocked.

King - Must pass on the bridge to go to the other side.

Knight - Jumps over the river, can always go to the other side. This makes it more powerful.

Variants

You can add these rules to the game:

Moving bridge: Players can move the bridge sideways.

Big bridge: The bridge covers from L to R, instead of only m, so there is no river, but it is still one square. See below for a diagram.

No knight on bridge: Knights can't go on the bridge.

Bishop palace: Bishops change place with rooks. They are stuck on their side. (Except if used with the changing color bishop move rule.)

King palace: The kings can't cross the bridge.

Tiny king palace: The kings can cross the bridge. They can't go to the L or R column or to the d or w rows(they are stuck in 3x3 palaces, as in Xiangqi).

Side pawn move: Pawns can move sideways on Ld, Rd, Lw and Rw, so they don't get stuck.

Changing color bishop move: Bishops on k can move to md or mw. Bishops on md or mw can move to k(the bridge).

Queen: Replace a piece by a queen.

Square Head Glinsky: Pawns take sideways.

Stalemate A: On stalemate, instead of a draw, the stalemated king wins. (when you get stalemated, you're happy aren't you? :) )

Stalemate B: On stalemate, instead of a draw, the stalemated king loses.

Perpetual check: If you can perpetual check the other player, you win.

All your base are belong to us: Replace bishops with crooked bishops. Replace knights with camels. Replace rooks by murray lions. See the piececlopedia.

Dopefish: Replace the knights with dopefish: they move like queens, but can't do non-taking moves. (they must take every move)

Big bridge variant

  L   l   m   r   R
 ___ ___ ___ ___ ___
|   |   |   |   |   |
| î | ï | ± | ï | î | z
|___|___|___|___|___|
|   |   |   |   |   |
| ? | i | i | i | ? | y
|___|___|___|___|___|
|   |   |   |   |   |
|   |   |   |   |   | x
|___|___|___|___|___|
|   |   |   |   |   |
|   |   |   |   |   | w
|___|___|___|___|___|
|                   |
|                   | k (The bridge, one big square)
|___________________|
|   |   |   |   |   |
|   |   |   |   |   | d
|___|___|___|___|___|
|   |   |   |   |   |
|   |   |   |   |   | c
|___|___|___|___|___|
|   |   |   |   |   |
| ? | i | i | i | ? | b
|___|___|___|___|___|
|   |   |   |   |   |
| î | ï | ± | ï | î | a
|___|___|___|___|___|
  L   l   m   r   R

Written by Hubert Lamontagne.
WWW page created: April 2, 2001.