Heavy Chess
Heavy Chess is a slight variation of Sac Chess (Kevin Pacey, 2015) and thus does not claim any originality. The seminal principle is to see some elemental bricks behind the FIDE chess pieces. Those are the moves of the kNight (N), Rook (R), Bishop (B) and King (K). By associating those elements several fairy pieces can be made and those are very well known by chessvariants fans. Double compounds are RN, BN, KN, KR, KB. Of course, RB is the Queen. RBK is the Amazon, one of the triple compounds.
Sac Chess had been designed with a goal of "knighting" and "crowning" every FIDE pieces by pairs. Then, it has 2 RN, 2 BN, 2 KN, 2 KR, 2KB and 2 QN=Amazons, keeping a single Queen. Heavy Chess is slight variation built on a different logic, i.e. using a pair of every double compound, the Queen being one of them. The Amazon being the stronger and a triple compound, it is used alone, by King's side. Thus, in Heavy Chess there are 2 RN, 2 BN, 2 KN, 2 KR, 2KB, 2 RB (Queens) and 1 QN (Amazon).
Setup
The board has 10 x 10 checkered squares with a white one at the right end of each player.
There are 30 pieces per side:
White's pieces:
- 2 Marshals (a1, j1), 2 Cardinals (b1, i1), 2 Admirals (c1, h1), 2 Queens (d1, g1), 2 Legates (e1, f1) on 1st row,
- 1 King (f2), 1 Amazon (e2), 2 Bishops (d2, g2), 2 Knights (c2, h2), 2 Rooks (b2, i2), 2 Centaurs (a2, j2) on 2nd row,
- 10 Pawns on 3rd row.
Black's pieces mirroring with King (f9), Amazon (e9), etc.
The initial setup follows some principles that have been edicted for Sac Chess:
Maitaining the relative initial arrangement of the FIDE chess, except for one difference: the FIDE Queen is replaced by an Amazon.
Do not put more than one piece with a "Rook-content" per column
The difference with Sac Chess is that there are two Queens and one Amazon instead of two Amazons and one Queen.
Initial Setup:
Pieces
Queen: slides to any square along the file, the rank or a diagonal on which it stands. Identical to standard chess.
Rook: moves to any square along the file or the rank on which it stands. Identical to standard chess (except there is no castling)
Bishop: slides to any square along a diagonal on which it stands. Identical to standard chess
Knight: a (2,1) jumper, it jumps to the opposite square of a 2x3 rectangle. No matter what the intermediate square contains. Identical to standard chess
Amazon: it combines the move of Queen and Knight. Amazon is the most usual name for this piece.
Marshal: it combines the move of Rook and Knight. It is also called a Chancellor. The name Marshal, also popular among chess variants, is used by consistency with my other variants.
Cardinal: it combines the move of Bishop and Knight. It is also called an Archbishop. The name Cardinal, also popular among chess variants, is used by consistency with my other variants.
Centaur: it combines the moves of Knight and non-royal King. Centaur is the most usual name for this piece.
Admiral: it is another compound piece that moves as a Rook or a non-royal King. That means that it is a Rook that can also step one space diagonally. It corresponds to the Dragon King that is found in Shogi. It is a Sailor in Sac chess. Dragon King seemed not appropriate in the context of this variant and I wanted a more elevated name than Sailor, hence my proposal of naming this piece an Admiral.
Missionary: it is another compound piece that moves as a Bishop or a non-royal King. That means that it is a Bishop that can also step one space orthogonally. It corresponds to the Dragon Horse that is found in Shogi. It is a Missionary in Sac chess. Dragon Horse seemed not appropriate in the context of this variant, so I kept the name of Missionary.
Rules
Castling occurs on the 2nd rank between the king & either rook, with conditions as in chess. Pawns act standardly too (e.g. an initial 2-step move & en passant capture allowed), the only difference is that they still promote on the last rank, but any of the new types of pieces may be selected, besides the types allowed in chess. Stalemate is a draw like in chess.
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By Jean-Louis Cazaux.
Last revised by Jean-Louis Cazaux.
Web page created: 2020-12-21. Web page last updated: 2020-12-22