ArchMage Chess
ArchMage Chess
Designed by Cyrus Arturas
| Introduction Setup Pieces Play on Game Courier |
Introduction
There have been many variations of chess rules throughout history. One of the earliest known variations of chess from the 6th century CE is called Chaturanga from India. Chaturanga is the predecessor for the modern form of European Chess most played today in the West and internationally throughout the world. If you wish to learn more about historical ancient chess variations and their rules please visit AncientChess.com which is a great resource of information and research by Rick Knowlton.
The unit symbols and diagrams for ArchMage Chess were made using the Chess Board Painter Tool on MusketeerChess.net. Musketeer Chess is a unique variant of chess created by Zied Haddad which provides fairy pieces for sale on their website. The creation of ArchMage Chess was inspired from studying different chess variations on ChessVariants.com especially Terachess II and its predecessors designed by Jean-Louis Cazaux who is the author of A World of Chess.
Another interesting chess variant I’ve come across is called 3D-GrandChess designed by Tarcisio Barison which is played in an 8x8x8 Space, equivalent to 512 Cubic Boxes and each player commands an army of 128 GrandPieces.
Other popular chess variants include Shatranj (Persian Chess), Makruk (Thai Chess),Shogi (Japanese Chess), Xiangqi (Chinese Chess), Janggi (Korean Chess), Amazon Chess, Courier Chess, Omega Chess, Metamachy, Capablanca Chess, Gothic Chess, and Chaturaji (Indian 4 Player Chess).
If you want to contact Cyrus Arturas you can reach him by email at [email protected] or through his profile on Chess.com.
Chess.com/member/ArchMageChess
ChessVariants.com/who/ArchMageChess
Setup
ArchMage Chess is played on a 10x10 board and has 3 rows of units in each army. Each player starts with 30 units in their army containing 14 different unique units plus 4 special units acquired thru promotion and 2 special units acquired thru summoning. The unique units seen in chess variants are called fairy pieces.
Front Row : Pawns (row 3, row 8)
Mid Row : Manticore (a2,j2,a9,j9), Bishop (b2,i2,b9,i9), Centaur (c2,h2,c9,h9), Phoenix (d2,g2,d9,g9), Amazon (e2,e9), Prince (f2,f9)
Back Row : Griffon (a1,j1,a10,j10), Rook (b1,i1,b10,i10), Buffalo (c1,h1,c10,h10), Sorceress (d1,d10), Queen (e1,e10), King (f1,f10), Mage (g1,g10)
Initial Setup :
Pieces
Pawn : It moves 1 square forward without capturing exactly as in European Chess, including en passant capture. It may move 2 squares forward without capturing on its first initial move from starting position. It captures 1 square diagonally forward but cannot move diagonally forward without capturing.
The Pawn is the least powerful unit in the game.
The Pawn promotes to an ArchMage when it reaches the last row.
Phoenix : It moves 1 square in any direction orthogonally, or may jump to a position 2 squares diagonally. When moving 2 squares diagonally, it may jump and it does not matter what unit intermediate squares contain.
The Phoenix promotes to a Lion when it reaches the last row.
Lion : He moves as a King (1 square in any direction), or may jump to a position 2 squares away, jumping in any orthogonal or diagonal direction, or he can (2,1) jump as a Knight in European Chess and it does not matter what unit intermediate squares contain.
Sorceress : She moves as a King (1 sqaure in any direction). When moving 2 or 3 squares orthogonally or diagonally, she may jump and it does not matter what unit intermediate squares contain.
The Sorceress promotes to an ArchMage when she reaches the last row.
Mage : He moves as a King (1 square in any direction), or may jump to a position 2 squares away, jumping in any orthogonal or diagonal direction, or he can (2,1) jump as a Knight in European Chess and it does not matter what unit intermediate squares contain.
The Mage promotes to an ArchMage when he reaches the last row.
ArchMage : It moves as a Queen (indefinitely to any square orthogonally or diagonally) and can (2,1) jump as a Knight in European Chess. When moving 2 or 3 squares, it may jump and it does not matter what unit intermediate squares contain.
The ArchMage is the most powerful unit in the game.
The ArchMage may only be acquired through the promotion of other units.
The Mage, Sorceress, and Pawns may all promote to an ArchMage upon reaching the last row on the opposite side of the board.
Dragon King : He moves indefinitely to any square orthogonally or 1 square diagonally.
Dragon Horse : She moves indefinitely to any square diagonally or 1 square orthogonally.
King : He moves 1 square in any orthogonal or diagonal direction to an unattacked square.
Queen : She moves indefinitely to any square orthogonally or diagonally.
Prince : He moves and captures 1 square in any orthogonal or diagonal direction. He moves without capturing 2 squares in any orthogonal direction.
The Prince promotes to an Amazon when he reaches the last row.
Amazon : She moves as a Queen or she can (2,1) jump as a Knight in European Chess.
Bishop : He moves indefinitely to any square diagonally.
The Bishop promotes to an Archbishop when he reaches the last row.
Archbishop : He moves as a Bishop or he can (2,1) jump as a Knight in European Chess.
Rook : He moves indefinitely to any square orthogonally.
The Rook promotes to a Chancellor when he reaches the last row.
Chancellor : He moves as a Rook or he can (2,1) jump as a Knight in European Chess.
Centaur : It moves as a King or it can (2,1) jump as a Knight in European Chess.
The Centaur promotes to a Lion when it reaches the last row.
Buffalo : It can (2,1) jump as a Knight in European Chess.
It can also (3,1) jump or (3,2) jump.
Manticore : It moves 1 square orthogonally and then slides away an indefinite number of squares diagonally. It is authorized to go only 1 square orthogonally. It cannot jump, and the unobstructed path must start with the orthogonal movement.
Griffon : It moves 1 square diagonally and then slides away an indefinite number of squares orthogonally. It is authorized to go only 1 square diagonally. It cannot jump, and the unobstructed path must start with the diagonal movement.
Rules
The rules for En Passant Capture, Castling, Check, Checkmate, Stalemate, and Draw are the same as in European Chess.
Positional Switch
The ArchMage, Mage, and Sorceress have the ability to switch positions with any ally unit except for the King in a 3 square radius. If a pawn is switched into the third row or behind the third row it may move 1 or 2 spaces forward until it passes the third row. En Passant capture of the pawn still works in any of these positions
Promotion
Pieces can promote moving into the last row and switching into the last row. Promotion is mandatory.
- A Pawn is promoted to an ArchMage
- A Mage is promoted to an ArchMage
- A Sorceress is promoted to an ArchMage
- A Prince is promoted to an Amazon
- A Phoenix is promoted to a Lion
- A Centaur is promoted to a Lion
- A Bishop is promoted to an Archbishop
- A Rook is promoted to a Chancellor
Dragon Summoning
Each player starts the game with 1 Dragon King and 1 Dragon Horse unit in their hand at the beginning of the game. The ArchMage, Mage, or Sorceress unit may summon a Dragon King unit or a Dragon Horse unit on any square adjacent to itself in a 1 square radius which is not already occupied by another unit. Summoning a unit counts as 1 move on your turn therefore ending your turn. If a Dragon unit gets captured by an opponent then that piece goes to the opponent’s hand. The captured Dragon unit may be summoned by the capturing player as long as they have a summoner unit in play. There may only be 2 Dragon Kings and 2 Dragon Horses in play at a time on either side.
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By Cyrus Arturas.
Last revised by Cyrus Arturas.
Web page created: 2022-05-03. Web page last updated: 2023-02-05