Check out Symmetric Chess, our featured variant for March, 2024.

Haynie's Hexagonal Chess

Billy Haynie designed this variant of Hexagonal chess in 1999. His purpose was: more king and rook protection with bishop trios. The board is similar to that of Glinski's Hexagonal Chess, or Mc Cooey's Hexagonal Chess, but turned 30 degrees.

Rules

The board and opening setup are shown below. Rules are as in Glinski's Hexagonal Chess, except where noted below. The pieces used in this game are kings, queens, rooks, bishops, knights, wazirs, firzans, and pawns.

The opening setup is:


            b r q k r b 
           f n w b w n f 
          p p p p p p p p            .: unoccupied cell 
         p p p p p p p p p 
        . . . . . . . . . . 
       . . . . . . . . . . . 
        . . . . . . . . . . 
         P P P P P P P P P 
          P P P P P P P P 
           F N W B W N F 
            B R Q K R B 

Pawns do not have an initial double step, and hence cannot take en passant. Their movement is also different from Glinski's Hexagonal chess: they can move without capturing like a rook, but only one step in a forward direction, and they can take like a bishop, but only one step in a forward direction. See the following diagram:

                       black 
                     C C C C C 
                    C C C C C C            The pawn 
                   C C C = C C C           has no backward 
                  C C = X X = C C          vector in it's 
                 C C C C P C C C C         moves. 
                  C C C C C C C C 
                   C C C C C C C           P: white pawn 
                    C C C C C C            X: pawn can move without capturing here
                     C C C C C             =: pawn can capture here
                       white

Wazirs move like a rook, but only one step in a direction, i.e., to the one of the six directly surrounding cells. Firzans move like a bishop, but only one step in a direction.


WWW page made by Hans Bodlaender, based on emails of Billy Haynie.
WWW page made: September 9, 1999.