Bandit Chess
Setup
Starting position: <> T B K O R <> N $ $ $ N P P P P P P P P P P P P P P N $ $ $ N <> R O K B T <> Pawns are located on the third and seventh ranks.Pieces
Chancellors ("<>") move and capture as rook + knight compounds.
Sergeants ("$") move as sergeants in Wolf Chess.
Tricksters (T
) move exactly like archbishops (knight + bishop compounds), but they can never take another agent. Tricksters can be taken themselves, even though they can't take agents, but only pawns and pieces that can jump other pieces have the ability to take out a trickster – they don't have to move with a jump when they take out the trickster, but it's enough that they can jump agents.
The trickster can transform enemy pieces into other pieces, but those will always remain enemy pieces after the switch as well. It is necessary to say Trick
right before leaving the trickster (as part of moving it) in the square that will accomplish any change, so that the opponent is made aware of the imminent action. The transformation of enemy pieces is part of the same move that placed the trickster into position right in between the enemy pieces, but they must be on adjacent squares to the square the trickster moved to. This action is accomplished whenever a trickster steps in between two enemy pieces (both on adjacent squres to the trickster), but only in the orthogonal configuration. The transformation doesn't work with a diagonal configuration.
The change of one piece into another only works with enemy pieces and not with enemy pawns, friendly pawns, or friendly pieces. It is possible to switch a bishop into a king, if the trickster steps in between the enemy king and an enemy bishop. Then if either king gets mated, it's a win for the one who mated the king, regardless of there being another king that's not mated.
It's up to the player whose trickster it is to decide which of the enemy pieces opposite each other that will be replaced with a piece corresponding to the one of the other square.
If the trickster can be moved onto a square with double configurations of the described type, then two replacements can be made as part of the same move.
The trickster can only transform any one piece to the one it's opposite – when only the orthogonally adjacent neighbors to the trickster are considered – more precisely the one that is in the same orthogonal configuration, or line
, with the trickster located exactly in the middle.
Outlaws (O
) can move diagonally in all four directions, similarly to a bishop, but they can not take enemy pieces like a bishop does. Like bishops, they can not jump over any agent. Outlaws can be taken by agents ordinarily capable of taking pieces, but whatever agent that captures an outlaw is destroyed as a conclusion to the same move. Kings are forbidden to take outlaws. They may be replaced by another piece due to the action of a trickster, and the trickster won't be destroyed in the process.
Unlike bishops, the outlaws can continue off the side of the board, reflecting the diagonal direction they originally had in a similar way that a ray of light reflects off a mirror. Outlaws can only be reflected off a side once every move.
Outlaws never take just one agent, but always take two in the same move. One of the two must be a white agent, and the other must be a black agent. The two that the outlaw takes must be placed in the closest possible way along any of the four orthogonal directions to the outlaw itself. The outlaw ends up two squares away from the square it occupied before the move. Thus it must pass the square that one of the victims
occupied, and it will end up on the square the other victim occupied. Outlaws are
allowed to take the enemy king without giving check first. Likewise, it's allowed for the enemy king to step into a position where an outlaw can take it next move.
Rules
Change of rules:
- The game is played on an 7x9 board instead of an 8x8 board.
- There is no castling move.
- Pawns only ever move 1 step at a time. Otherwise they function as Berolina plus pawns, so they'll move 1 step diagonally forward, and they'll take out enemy agents either 1 step orthogonally to either side or 1 step orthogonally forward.
- Pawns and sergeants promote to bishops or chancellors (option is open every promotion). This happens on the 9th rank.
- Sergeants count as pieces in this variant.
- If any player doesn't have any legal move once it's his/her turn to make a move, then he/she has lost the game.
This 'user submitted' page is a collaboration between the posting user and the Chess Variant Pages. Registered contributors to the Chess Variant Pages have the ability to post their own works, subject to review and editing by the Chess Variant Pages Editorial Staff.
By Patrik Hedman.
Last revised by Fergus Duniho.
Web page created: 2014-03-16. Web page last updated: 2021-06-11