Check out Atomic Chess, our featured variant for November, 2024.

This page is written by the game's inventor, Gerd Degens.

Morphing Chess

 
By Gerd P. Degens

 

The game requires a 9 x 9 board. In the morph zone (see below), pieces mutate into higher-value and lower-value pieces. The king also mutates into a higher or lower value piece in appearance and move options, but remains the royal piece that must be captured. In this case, increased caution is required.

Setup

Pieces

Standard set of pieces - plus archbishop, chancellor and amazon. Details in the rule section.

pawnslides to the 2nd square straight ahead to an empty square if it has not moved yet, steps one square straight ahead to an empty square, or diagonally forward for (e.p.?) capturing only, , or straight ahead, or slides to the 2nd square straight ahead for capturing only knightsteps one square straight ahead to an empty square, or diagonally forward for capturing only, or makes a knight's jump up to 2 times in the same direction bishopsteps one square straight ahead to an empty square, or diagonally forward for (e.p.?) capturing only, , or diagonally, slides up to halfway the board straight ahead to an empty square if it has not moved yet, jumps to the 2nd or 3rd square diagonally, or jumps to the 4th square diagonally rookslides up to halfway the board straight ahead to an empty square, steps one square diagonally forward for (e.p.?) capturing only, or orthogonally, jumps to the 2nd or 3rd square orthogonally, or jumps to the 4th square orthogonally queensteps one square diagonally forward to an empty square, or straight ahead for (e.p.?) capturing only, , or orthogonally, , or diagonally, slides to the 2nd square diagonally forward to an empty square if it has not moved yet, jumps to the 2nd square orthogonally, or jumps to the 2nd square diagonally archbishopsteps one square straight ahead, slides diagonally, or makes a knight's jump chancellormakes a knight's jump, makes a knight's jump, or slides orthogonally amazonslides diagonally, slides in all 8 directions, or makes a knight's jump royal pawnslides orthogonally, slides to the 2nd square straight ahead for capturing only, or steps one square straight ahead royal amazonslides in all 8 directions, slides in all 8 directions, or makes a knight's jump royal chancellorsteps one square in all 8 directions, castles by stepping 2 squares towards the (fast-castling) king, makes a knight's jump, or slides orthogonally royal archbishopsteps one square in all 8 directions, castles by stepping 9 squares towards the (fast-castling) king, makes a knight's jump, or slides diagonally kingslides diagonally, makes a knight's jump, steps one square in all 8 directions, or castles by stepping 3 squares towards the rook

Rules

Except for the following changes, the Fide rules apply.

There is no capturing en passant, castling takes place..
Bare king loses.
Stalemate is a win.

Morph Zone

The 5th rank is the morph zone. When a piece reaches the morph zone, it is upgraded or downgraded as follows:

On the squares

- a5, b5 and h5, i5 the piece is downgraded to a pawn (pawn remains as a pawn)
- c5 and g5 the piece is upgraded to an archbishop
- d5 and f5 the piece is upgraded to a chancellor and
- e5 the piece is upgraded to an amazon.

The pieces appear on the squares of the morph zone as follows:


 

King in the morph zone:

The king will keep its original appearance in the morph zone, i.e. the king is still recognizable as the king.
Nevertheless, the king is downgraded and upgraded according to the above rules. This means:

On the squares

- a5, b5 and h5, i5 the king is downgraded to a pawn
- c5 and g5 the king is upgraded to an archbishop
- d5 and f5 the king is upgraded to a chancellor and
- e5 the king is upgraded to an amazon.

Regardless of this, the goal is still to capture the king. When this is done, the game ends as usual.

 

Pieces

Pawn (Morphing Chess)

The pawn can always move one square forwards and capture. If there is an opponent's piece on the second square forwards, it can be captured if there is no piece in between.

 

Knight (double knight)

The knight may move to one of the squares nearest to that on which it stands but not on the same rank, file or diagonal. With the double knight, the move options are doubled. This means that the knight can leap directly to a space two knight leaps away.

Bishop (Morphing Chess)

The bishop may move to 4 squares along a diagonal on which it stands. The bishop can jump over pieces.
 

Rook (Morphing Chess)

The rook may move to 4 squares along the file or the rank on which it stands. The rook can jump over pieces.
 

Queen (Morphing Chess)

The queen may move to 2 squares along the file, the rank or a diagonal on which it stands. The queen can jump over pieces.

 

Archbishop

The archbishop is a hybrid piece of knight and bishop, whereby the bishop may move to any square along a diagonal on which it stands.
 

Chancellor 

The chancellor is a hybrid piece of knight and rook, whereby the rook may move to any square along a file or the rank on which it stands.

Amazon

The amazon is a hybrid piece of knight and queen, whereby the queen may move to any square along the file, the rank or a diagonal on which it stands.

King

Castling: This is a move of the king and either rook of the same colour along the player’s first rank, counting as a single move of the king and executed as follows: the king is transferred from its original square three squares towards the rook on its original square, then that rook is transferred to the square just next to the king.

  

 

Notes

 

Play it !
files=9 ranks=9 promoZone=0 promoChoice=NBRQ graphicsDir=/graphics.dir/alfaeriePNG/ squareSize=50 graphicsType=png stalemate=win baring=0 pawn:P:fWfcnD:pawn:a2,b2,c2,d2,e2,f2,g2,h2,i2,,a8,b8,c8,d8,e8,f8,g8,h8,i8 morph=////PPACZCAPP//// knight:N:N2:knight:b1,h1,,b9,h9 morph=////PPACZCAPP//// bishop:B:FAGAY:bishop:c1,g1,,c9,g9 morph=////PPACZCAPP//// rook:R:WDHWX:rook:a1,i1,,a9,i9 morph=////PPACZCAPP//// queen:Q:WFDA:queen:d1,f1,,d9,f9 morph=////PPACZCAPP//// archbishop:A:BN:cardinal: chancellor:C:RN:chancellor: amazon:Z:QN:amazon: royal pawn:J:fWfcnD:king: royal amazon:O:QN:king: royal chancellor:M:NR:king: royal archbishop:L:NB:king: king:K:KisO3:king:e1,,e9 morph=////JJLMOMLJJ////

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 Gerd P. Degens.

Last revised by Gerd Degens.


Web page created: 2024-02-26. Web page last updated: 2024-03-15

Revisions of MSmorphing-chess