Continental Chess
Continental Chess is a Chess Variant for two players. The idea behind the game was to create one with many types of pieces (that all are dislacement capture) such as stepper, leaper, hopper and rider in one game.
Continental Chess is created to be a fictional Chess variant. Continental Chess is played widely in Grand Continent, which is one supercontinent of a fictional world.
Setup
Continental Chess is played on an 8 by 8 board. Each players has 1 General, 1 Guard, 2 Elephants, 2 Horses, 2 Chariots, 2 Cannons and 10 Soldiers. But on initial setup has only 16 pieces, another 4 pieces held in hand.
For White: Soldiers on 3rd rank. Chariots on 2 outermost squares of 1st rank. Horses next to Chariot. Elephants next to horse. General and Guard next to Elephants but General always on the left of Guard. 2 Soldiers and 2 Cannons are in hand.
For Black: Setup rotational symmetry to White.
Pieces
In these images, white dots represent direct non-capturing moves, black dots represent direct capturing moves, green dots represent direct moves that may be capturing or non-capturing, beige dots represent non-capturing moves along a line of empty spaces, and olive dots represent moves along a line of empty spaces that may conclude with a capturing or non-capturing move. Each diagram centers around the piece it is for.
General
The General may move to any adjacent squares. It may not move into check, and when it is checked, the player must make a move to end the check. It moves like the King in Chess except it can't castle.
On 2nd Diagram, the Elephant threatens check on three squares the King could otherwise move to, which prevents the King from moving to those squares. (Please see Elephant movement below.)
Guard
The Guard may move to any adjacent diagonal square. It will still remain on the same color. It moves like the Ferz in Chaturanga and Shatranj.
Elephant
The Elephant may move to any front or back adjacent squares. It never moves to any side adjacent squares. It moves like the Crane in Tori Shogi.
Horse
The Horse may move to any of the closest squares that not on the same rank, file or diagonal. It moves like the Knight in Chess.
Cannon
The Cannon may move any number of squares along a rank or file, but it cannot leap over other pieces except to capture, which it does by jumping over a first piece of either color along a rank or file and capturing the next piece. It moves like the Cannon in Xiangqi.
For dropping Cannons, Cannons may be dropped only c, d, e or f file of the player's 1st rank. Each player has 2 cannons that can be dropped.
In the diagram, the Cannon may capture Soldiers on (-2,0), (0,3) and (3,0).
Chariot
The Chariot may move any number of squares along a rank or file, but it cannot leap over other pieces. It moves like the Rook in Chess.
Soldier
The Soldier may move to an adjacent front square on the same file, but it can capture only on an adjacent front diagonal squares. It must promote to Guard Soldier immediately when it reaches the player's 6th rank, which is the rank the opponent's soldiers start on. It is completely like the Pawn in Makruk.
For dropping Soldiers, Soldiers may be dropped only on the player's 3rd rank, which is the rank the other soldiers begin on. Each player has 2 Soldiers that can be dropped.
Guard Soldier
The Guard Soldier may move to any adjacent diagonal square. It will still on the same color. It moves like guard but is represented by a different visual.
Rules
Other rules are the same as in Chess except for these changes:
Pieces in hand (2 Soldiers and 2 Cannons) may be dropped into games, but captured pieces will be removed and no longer used.
Dropping must done instead of moving. You can drop only one piece on a turn. Each player can drop only 4 times during the entire game (because each have only 4 pieces to drop).
For example, this is 2nd White turn. White may drop a Soldier into e3 instead of moving, but it is not recommended.
The object of the game is to make the opponent unable to make any legal moves. It’s not same as Chess. Stalemate is a win for the player who can force stalemate.
For example, this is Black turn. Black must make any legal move without moving the General into Check, but he can't. The game is a win for White.
50 moves rule is replaced by 64+16 moves rule. If there have been 64 consecutive moves of white and black without any Soldier left (Guard Soldier doesn't count into this this rule). The count will start immediately. But if any piece has been captured consecutive moves of white and of black will increase 16 moves for a piece. If game count to consecutive moves, the game will automatically draw.
Black Soldier on d8 is Guard Soldier.
For example, this is White turn: White is disadvantage and try to draw with 64+16 moves rule. White play Sb6=S+ to start 64+16 moves rule in this white turn and game will end in draw in 64 moves of Black. In other way after Black move complete 64 moves game will end in draw. But Black try to avoid it, Black doesn't want to count 64 moves to draw. Black try to trade Guard Soldier with S+c7 to increase 32 moves, from 64 moves to 96 moves (Becuase it has 2 pieces have been captured). But White don't want it and try to avoid trade with S+a5 and game will continue with Black have 63 moves if not have any pieces has been capture to checkmate White General.
Repetition of moves replace by Fourfold Repetition instead of Threefold. If Fourfold Repetition occur, the game will automatically draw.
Notes
Continental Chess can be played with a Standard Set board (Can play by use either 2 colors board or 1 color board, but recommend to use 1 color board.) with Two Makruks Set, by represent Cannon by Boat Tilting and represent Guard Soldier by Flipped Pawn.
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By Siwakorn Songrag.
Last revised by Fergus Duniho.
Web page created: 2022-02-09. Web page last updated: 2022-07-16