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 an upgraded or downgraded piece, but remains the royal piece in appearance, which must be captured.

Setup

Pieces

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

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 retain the upgrade or downgrade during the game.

They 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 or 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.

The king keeps his royal status as before.

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 !

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