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Our Featured Variant: Try the Chinese game of Xiangqi, one of the most popular and enduring Chess variants in the world.
Rate Squarcle Chess for the 100 Squares Contest
Squarcle Chess is so called because it is the combination of a square board (SQUARe) and a circular board (cirCLE).
Think of it as a series of nested Monopoly™ boards. The centermost board is 4 squares in size, the next one is 12 squares in size, the next is 20, and so on and on.
There are two types of Squarcle Chess: 10X10 Squarcle Chess, and 8X8 Squarcle Chess. Both will be displayed simultaneously, and I will mark off parts that only pertain to one variant or the other.
The the reason this variant could also be called chess onthe surface of a cone becomes apparent when you see the board:
Below is shown the starting positions of the 10X10 version of Squarcle Chess. There are a total of fifty pieces:1 White king, 1 Black king, 1 White queen, 1 Black queen, 1 white Count, 1 Black count, 2 White ballistas, 2 Black ballistas, 2 White trebuchets, 2 Black trebuchets, 2 White Rooks, 2 Black Rooks, 2 White rabbits, 2 Black rabbits, 2 White knights, 2 Black knights, 2 White bishops, 2 Black bishops, 10 White pawns, and 10 Black pawns. There are 25 pieces per player.
As always, the right-most square closest to you is white.
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In this game, one special provision mut be made before I continue. It is a rule that already exists in FIDE chess, although it is a bit redundant in normal chess. The rule is as follows: no piece may move in such a way that the board looks no different at the end of the turn then it did at the beginning. This prevents people from being able to simply pass a turn.
All the pieces exist in both versions of squarcle chess, with the exception of the pieces marked.
This piece's move is self evident on a squarcle board. Either the Rook moves in a straight
line from one edge to the other (Blue line), or it moves in a loop (red line). The rook will loop through a nuber of squares dependant
on its position on the board. As an example, if the rook were on the outermost loop, it could traverse up to 35 squares. If, on the
other hand, the rook were in the center, it could traverse only up to 5 squares counting the straight moves as well as the loop
moves.
The length of a bishop's
move is independant of its position, unlike the rook. For instance, if the bishop were on a corner, it could travel through 17 squares.
In the center of the edge, the bishop still could travel through 17 squares.
The blue Xs represent legal moves, while red Xs represent illegal moves. The A represents the rAbbit, the Fs represent Friendly pieces, and the Es represent Enemy Pieces. Note that the legal X on the same square as an enemy piece means that you can capture that piece (from this particular position).
To go to my main page, click here
Squarcle Chess has now been implemented for Zillions of Games. Download and unzip this file to play Squarcle Chess against Zillions of Games:
Last modified: Monday, December 22, 2008
