This is Chess, on a 12-by-12 battlefield. (There are already too many versions of 10x10 Chess, and almost all of them just add the boring Rook-Knight and Bishop-Knight compounds, which are cool in theory, but LAME in practice.)
I continued with the medieval theme, by adding 2 new pieces: the Archer and the Prince (or Jack). (“Pawn” originally referred to the physical game pieces themselves, and was not the name of a piece; the weakest chess piece was originally called a “Footsoldier”. And “Rook” is a mistranslation of an Old Arabic word for “Siege Tower”.)
Setup
Pieces
The Archer moves by stepping 1 square, or leaping 2 squares, orthogonally or diagonally (but not like a Knight). (Betza notation: WFAD) The Archer captures differently, however. It captures like a Queen, but WITHOUT MOVING ITSELF, just “shooting” the enemy piece.
The Prince (or Jack) moves just like a King, but can’t castle, can move into threat, and can be captured. However, read the "Abdication" section under "Rules".
Pawns move up to 3 steps forward from the second rank, and up to 2 steps forward from any other rank. They capture as in Chess: one square diagonally forward. En passant is allowed by any pawn on any rank.
All other pieces move as in FIDE Chess.
Rules
Adbication: If you still have a Prince when you get checkmated, and that Prince is not threatened, you can either accept checkmate and lose, or “abdicate” and make the Prince your new King, removing the old King from the board. (This is not allowed if removing the King from the board would put the Prince under threat.) No more “fools’ mate”. If you have 2 Princes that aren’t threatened, and you get checkmated, then you can pick which Prince to make the new King.
Pawn promotion: Pawns promote on the 10th, 11th, or 12th rank to Queen, Rook, Bishop, Knight, or Archer. They can also promote to Prince, but only if you don’t have any other Princes of your colour on the board. This is to prevent promoting all your Pawns to Princes to avoid checkmate.
Castling: In Castling, the Rook moves to the square where the Bishop started, and the King moves to the square where the Knight started.
All other rules are as in FIDE Chess.
Notes
Notation for Archer captures: Aa1xa11 (Archer on a1 “shoots” enemy Pawn on a11)
Notation for abdication: # Je1=K (checkmate: Prince/Jack becomes new King)
Equipment: The Archer can be represented with a “bow-and-arrow” shape pointing upwards on a typical base. The Prince could be represented as a King without a cross. (Abdication could be represented by putting it on top of 2 checkers, a.k.a. a checkers “king” or promoted piece.)
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By dead dead.
Web page created: 2021-03-29. Web page last updated: 2021-03-29