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AvantGarde Chess

This is a rules file for Zillions of Games, a Windows program that will let you play any puzzle or strategy board game you can feed it the rules to. With Zillions-of-Games installed, this rules file will let you play this game against your computer.

Here's yet another 10x8 board Chess variant named after a font.

Rules

As standard FIDE Chess, with the addition of of a Mann (non-royal King) and a Centaur (Mann plus Knight). Pawns may promote to Knight, Bishop, Mann, Rook, Centaur or Queen. Castling is extended one square in each direction -- the King moving three squares toward the Rook -- and otherwise like FIDE Chess' castling.

Setup

AvantGarde Chess setup.
White:
  • Pawns: a2 b2 c2 d2 e2 f2 g2 h2 i2 j2
  • Knights: b1 i1
  • Bishops: c1 h1
  • Mann: d1
  • Rooks: a1 j1
  • Centaur: g1
  • Queen: e1
  • King: f1
Black:
  • Pawns: a7 b7 c7 d7 e7 f7 g7 h7 j7 i7
  • Knights: b8 i8
  • Bishops: c8 h8
  • Mann: d8
  • Rooks: a8 j8
  • Centaur: g8
  • Queen: e8
  • King: f8

Where This Came From

There were a couple of sources of inspiration for this, yet another font-named 10x8 Chess variant. The immediate inspiration was Fergus Duniho's publication of his Univers Chess, although this game doesn't take very much from there. Another source is an unpublished variant of my own Not-Particularly-New Chess called Post-Modern Chess. The third source was a series of e-mail discussions with David Paulowich about appropriate piece strengths. David prefers adding weaker pieces than Queens (and in fact, getting rid of Queens as too strong). Thus, this game.

This game has three Knight-movers (two Knights and a Centaur), three Bishop-movers (two Bishops and a Queen), three King-movers (a King, a Mann and a Centaur) and three Rook-movers (two Rooks and a Queen). I found this pleasingly symmetrical.

This is also my experiment with using the user posting system.

Strategy Discussion (from ZRF)

In the opening, try to develop your pieces more than your pawns. Always protect your King. Look for ways to exchange lower valued pieces for larger valued ones. The Bishop is probably worth a bit more than the Knight on this larger board, the Mann has been variously valued at Knight and Rook value, but is probably closer in value to the former than the latter, except in the endgame. The Centaur is probably intermediate between the Rook and the Queen, except in the endgame where it is probably as good as a Queen.

Download Instructions

Instructions on downloading this Zillions file:

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 Peter Aronson.
Web page created: 2006-02-05. Web page last updated: 2006-02-05