Falcon Chess 100

By George William Duke

Introduction

Board and Setup

+---+---+---+ +---+---+---+ 9 | |:::| | |:::| |:::| +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+ 8 |:::| r |:n:| f |:b:| q |:k:| b |:f:| n |:r:| | +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+ 7 | |:p:| p |:p:| p |:p:| p |:p:| p |:p:| p |:::| +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+ 6 | |:::| |:::| |:::| |:::| |:::| +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+ 5 |:::| |:::| |:::| |:::| |:::| | +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+ 4 | |:::| |:::| |:::| |:::| |:::| +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+ 3 |:::| |:::| |:::| |:::| |:::| | +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+ 2 |:::| P |:P:| P |:P:| P |:P:| P |:P:| P |:P:| | +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+ 1 | |:R:| N |:F:| B |:Q:| K |:B:| F |:N:| R |:::| +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+ 0 |:::| |:::| | |:::| | +---+---+---+ +---+---+---+ x a b c d e f g h i j y

White:

• Pawns (P): a2 b2 c2 d2 e2 f2 g2 h2 i2 j2
• Knights (N): b1 i1
• Bishops (B): d1 g1
• Rooks (R): a1 j1
• Falcons (F): c1 h1
• Queen (Q): e1
• King (K): f1

Black:

• Pawns (p): a7 b7 c7 d7 e7 f7 g7 h7 j7 i7
• Knights (n): b8 i8
• Bishops (b): d8 g8
• Rooks (r): a8 j8
• Falcons (f): c8 h8
• Queen (q): e8
• King (k): f8

The Moves of the Pieces

• The King moves as in FIDE Chess, except that Free Castling, as used in old Italian Chess, is used. To castle, the King moves over unoccupied squares to any square between it and the Rook. Then, as in the orthodox way, the Rook moves over the King to the adjacent square. All squares between the Rook and the King must be unoccupied, and the King may neither start in, move through, or end up in a square attacked by an opposing piece.

• The move of the Falcon is described in detail on the Falcon Chess page. To describe in brief, the Falcon slides by three different paths to each square three squares away not reachable by a Queen (the squares leapt to by a Zebra or a Camel). All of these paths consist of two orthogonal moves and one diagonal move, or two diagonal moves and one orthogonal move in the patterns: OOD, ODO, DOO, DDO, DOD and ODD.

• The Pawn moves and and captures like a Standard Chess Pawn, except that it promotes differently, and it has some additional moves.

  A Pawn that reaches the 6th (full) rank can then move laterally, one square horizontally right or left on any turn in addition to its normal forward move. Pawns still capture diagonally one square forward only.

  A pawn on a8, j8, a1 or j1 may move directly to the corresponding corner square with or without capturing, respectively x9, y9, x0 and y0, i.e., one square diagonally to the specific corner square, and then it promotes.

  Promotion Zone 1. A White Pawn that reaches x8, x9, a9, b9, i9, j9, y9 or y8 promotes to either Queen, Falcon or Knight. A Black pawn so promotes at x1, x0, a0, b0, i0, j0, y0 and y1.

  Promotion Zone 2. A White pawn that reaches x7, c8, d8, e8, f8, g8, h8 or y7 must promote to either Falcon, Rook, Knight or Bishop, not to Queen. A Black pawn so promotes at x2, c1, d1, e1, f1, g1, h1 and y2.

  The following diagram shows the promotion zones:

  +---+---+---+ +---+---+---+ 9 | 1 |:1:| 1 | |:1:| 1 |:1:| +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+ 8 |:1:| |:::| 2 |:2:| 2 |:2:| 2 |:2:| |:::| 1 | +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+ 7 | 2 |:::| |:::| |:::| |:::| |:::| |:2:| +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+ 6 | |:::| |:::| |:::| |:::| |:::| +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+ 5 |:::| |:::| |:::| |:::| |:::| | +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+ 4 | |:::| |:::| |:::| |:::| |:::| +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+ 3 |:::| |:::| |:::| |:::| |:::| | +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+ 2 |:2:| |:::| |:::| |:::| |:::| |:::| 2 | +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+ 1 | 1 |:::| |:2:| 2 |:2:| 2 |:2:| 2 |:::| |:1:| +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+ 0 |:1:| 1 |:1:| | 1 |:1:| 1 | +---+---+---+ +---+---+---+ x a b c d e f g h i j y

Notes