Shafran's Hexagonal Chess
Shafran's Hexagonal Chess was invented by Isaak Grigorevich Shafran, a Soviet geologist, in 1939, and it was registered in 1956.Setup
Pieces
King
The King moves ones space in any orthogonal or diagonal direction. Orthogonal directions go through the sides of spaces, and diagonal directions go through the corners of spaces. With six sides and six corners, the King can move in up to 12 different directions.
The King castles by moving three spaces toward the Rook with the Rook moving adjacent to the King on the other side. Apart from the longer distance for the King to move, castling works the same as it does in Chess.
Rook
The Rook may move any number of spaces in any orthogonal direction until it reaches an occupied space.
Bishop
The Bishop may move any number of spaces in any diagonal direction until it reaches an occupied space. As in Chess, Bishops are colorbound. Unlike Chess, the board has three colors, and each player has three Bishops to have one for each color. Because each Bishop can reach only one third of the board, a Bishop is less powerful than it is on the Chess board, where it can reach half the spaces.
Queen
The Queen moves as a Rook or a Bishop. Note that it can reach any space in its third perimeter, which it cannot do on a square board.
Knight
The Knight can leap directly to any space in its fourth perimeter that a Queen cannot reach. As in Chess, each space it can leap to is one that could be reached by moving one space orthogonally, followed by one more space in an outward diagonal direction. Besides not including the inward diagonal directions, outward diagonal directions do not include the sideways diagonal directions that would turn the piece a full 90 degrees.
Pawn
A Pawn normally moves ones space vertically forward without capturing or one space diagonally forward to capture.
On its first move, each of the three center Pawns may move up to three spaces forward in its own file, the two closest Pawns on each side of these three can move up to two spaces, and the lone Pawn on each edge can move no more than one space forward. The general rule is that each Pawn can move as far as it can on its first move without moving to the opponent's side of the board. But since there are some perfectly midway spaces that each side can reach with a Pawn's first move, this may increase the first-move advantage of White. As in Chess, the double and triple moves must be to an unoccupied space, and the Pawn may not leap over an occupied space. The diagram below shows the vertically forward moves available to each Pawn. Each circle shows a legal non-capturing move for the White Pawn in the same file.
When a Pawn does make a double or triple move, a Pawn that could have captured it if had moved a shorter distance may capture it by moving diagonally forward to the space it would have been able to capture it upon. In the position below, which is possible after three moves, Black's center Pawn has just moved three spaces forward, and the White Pawns on each adjacent file are in position to capture it by en passant. White's d Pawn can move directly behind it, and White's f Pawn can move two spaces directly behind it.
Rules
With the exceptions noted above about piece movement, Shafran's Hexagonal Chess is played like Chess.
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Author: Fergus Duniho. Inventor: Isaak Grigorevich Shafran.
Last revised by Fergus Duniho.
Web page created: 2023-04-05. Web page last updated: 2023-04-05