Stone Garden Chess
It can be in Britain, Spain, or other European country's town with statues in gardens. To be ready for it, let's start. Stay calm in these situations, and chess variant form will let you stay calm. And win! Probably…
Setup
Pieces
Blue points are only moving, yellow X-es are only capturing, green points are normal (both moving and capturing).
Horse (h)
As in Shogi, moves as chess knight, but only forward (2 squares forward, then 1 sideways), ignoring any pieces between him and his destinations. Ignores enemy horses, can deliver fast checkmate on start if opponent is stupid;)
Index (Î)
Index is Ox inverted on diagonals. By this, his moves are like four indexes: he can move 3 spaces diagonally, or 2 diagonally and then 1 orthogonally with 45° turn; he can't go farther if he meets anything on first 2 spaces. He can capture as he moves or on first 2 squares diagonally.
Raven (Ř)
It's easier to think that she's living raven, but it was statue in past. Her movement is asymmetric (orthogonal leap is oriented to enemy). She leaps 1 or 2 steps forward orthogonally or backwards diagonally, or 1 step sideways.
Raven has unique treat: she can turn 90° instead of moving, or move in direction where she hasn't 2-space leap with turning in this direction. She can turn once in 3 moves or more rarely; she cannot turn in first 5 moves from start.
If opponent's king is promoted, Raven can turn once in 2 moves instead of 3.
Ox (O)
Like he was on Horizons — it's his original version. He moves 3 spaces orthogonally or 2 orthogonally and then 1 diagonally with 45° turn; he can't go farther if he meets anything on first 2 spaces. He can capture as he moves or on first 2 squares orthogonally.
Policeman (P)
He is only human here (except for king). He does 1 orthogonal step, then 1 diagonal right or left (up or down) with 45° turn, then 2 orthogonal in direction of first step, and after it, can step 1 orthogonally straight or 1 diagonally right or left (up or down) with 45° turn; there he stops. He can move (land) only on first step, but only without capturing, or on last squares normally (both moving and capturing).
He can be like Magician from Horizons, but Policeman can't go so far, and can step near himself. He has his line.
King (+)
Moves as in FIDE chess, one square in arbitrary direction, but if he moves to opponent's half of board, he promotes.
Promoted king (¥) is compound of chess king and xiangqi horse (moves one square in arbitrary direction, or makes 1 orthogonal step and then 1 diagonal step outwards, landing on last square — if first is blocked, he can't go there).
Rules
The aim of the game is to checkmate opponent’s king.
Draw can be if there is 50 moves without progress (capture or Horse’s promotion), 3rd demotion of one from two kings or only kings left on the board.
3-fold repetition of certain position immediately stops the game, and player who moved last (even if he made check) loses the game. Stalemate is the win of player without legal move.
Prices of pieces: Horse — 2 chess pawns, Index / Raven / Ox — 4, Policeman — 8
Notes
…i. e. you can have blocked Policeman and get stalemate to win…
Earlier, Policeman was compound of Ox and Index, then his moves was directly changing, and this scheme’s version approved by my inner critician was appeared only under its final construction. For getting uniqueness, my dear people…
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By Lev Grigoriev.
Last revised by Lev Grigoriev.
Web page created: 2022-09-22. Web page last updated: 2023-04-15