Flipworld
Introduction
Flipworld is a chess variant inspired by the 84 spaces Contest. I designed as an entry to the 84 space Variant competition on ChessVariants.com. The game is a battle between the Army of Topside and the Army of Flipside on Flipworld. Flipworld is really two worlds, each on one side of a disc. The 6 center spaces are called the Nexus, where the two worlds blend into each other, allowing movement between the two sides. It has two circular chessboards, Topside and Flipside each with 42 spaces. Flipside is a red coloured world, with red inhabitants, called Flipsiders, while Topside is yellow with yellow Topsiders. The Nexus allows for some unusual but complicated diagonal moves. Also, any move a piece can make that travels through the Nexus, can be duplicated on the other side. Each board is divided into seven circuits and six vectors. Vectors go in and out toward the center and circuits go round the board. The vectors are numbered clockwise from the top and the circuits are numbered from the outside in.
This variant has two unconventional pieces, the Starman and the Tocop, described in detail below.
Setup
Each army starts on its own board. The Red Army starts on the Flipside Board, and the Yellow Army starts on the Topside Board. Each side has a circuit of six pawns two spaces in towards the center. Two knights, bishops and tocops start on the second circuit in, each opposite it's counterpart. The king and queen are opposite each other on the outer circuit. The two rooks start on either side of the queen and the two starmen start on either side of the king.
Pieces
PAWN
The Pawn moves like a standard chess pawn It moves inward on its home board and outward on the enemy board. It promotes on the outside circuit on the enemy board. The intial double step and en passant capturing is possible.
KNIGHT
The Knight moves like a normal chess knight.
BISHOP
The Bishop moves like a normal chess bishop but it can be confusing when travelling through the center spaces. The bishop always continues moving in the clockwise or anticlockwise but when it passes through the center it starts traveling outwards.
TOCOP
The Tocop is an one-color piece that moves two spaces diagonally or jumps two spaces orthagonally. Its diagonally move is not a jump, so it can be blocked. Two adjacent Tocops can cover the entire nexus from the 5th circuit.
STARMAN
The Starman moves like a Bishop and also has the inwards and outwards movement of a Rook, enabling it to change colours.
QUEEN
The Queen moves like a Rook and a Bishop combined. As innormal chess, it is the most powerful piece on the boards.
KING
The King moves like a standard chess King-one space in any direction.
Rules
Castling is acheived by moving the King onto one of the Rook's spaces and having the Rook pass the King and stand on the closest Starman space.
Written by JOHN RYAN.
WWW page created: OCTOBER 30, 2002.