Neutral King Chess

by V.R. Parton

Introduction

Neutral King Chess is a variant of Orthochess that was invented by V.R. Parton in 1953. It is played with the usual Chess pieces, but there are no Queens, and only one King, which is Neutral, and may be moved by either side. The object is to checkmate the lone King. Neutral King Chess is described in Pritchard's Encyclopedia of Chess Variants.

Setup

Each side starts with six Pawns and six pieces, and there is a King belonging to neither.

  +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
8 | r |:b:| n |:p:|   |:::|   |:::|
  +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
7 |:r:| b |:n:| p |:::|   |:::|   |
  +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
6 | p |:p:| p |:p:|   |:::|   |:::|
  +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
5 |:::|   |:::|   |:::|   |:::| k |
  +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
4 |   |:::|   |:::|   |:::|   |:::|
  +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
3 |:P:| P |:P:| P |:::|   |:::|   |
  +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
2 | R |:B:| N |:P:|   |:::|   |:::|
  +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
1 |:R:| B |:N:| P |:::|   |:::|   |
  +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
    a   b   c   d   e   f   g   h

Rules

The rules of Neutral King Chess are identical to those of International Chess, except when noted below.

• There is only one King, and that King is neutral. Either player may move the King instead of one of their own pieces. Since the King is neutral, it may capture pieces of either side, regardless of who is moving it.
• The White player may only move the King left, right or up the board, and the Black player may only move the King left, right, or down the board. However, the King may be moved freely (make any legal King move) to capture or to escape check.
• The King may not be moved to any square attacked by pieces of either side.
• A player may not leave the King in check by the other player, but they may so move as to put it in check from their own pieces.
• Pawns may only promote to Knights, Bishops or Rooks.

The goal of the game is to checkmate the Neutral King.

Equipment

This game can easily be played with a standard Western Chess set. Just choose one of the Kings and remember that is is neutral. It may be easier, however, to use a King from a different set whose color does not match either of those used for the other pieces.

Notes and Comments

This is a nice playing game, and unusually completely specified for a V.R. Parton design. It does seem to me that it could, however, benefit from a Ko rule, like that used in Go. That is, a move that returns the board to the exact same configuration that it had at the beginning of the previous player's move is not allowed. In other words, if one player makes a non-capturing move with the King, the other player may not on the immediately following turn move it back to the square it just came from.

Sources

This information is based on the description in Pritchard's Encyclopedia of Chess Variants.

Computer Play

There is an implementation of Neutral King Chess for Zillions of Games (both with and without a Ko rule). You can download it here:

• neutral-king.zip

Ed Friedlander has written an applet that lets you play Neutral King Chess against your computer. To play, click here.