Single Comment

This variant is of particular interest to me as creator of another variant hollowing out an 8x8x8 board, Empty Cube Chess. The 17th and 18th Pawn aside seem superfluous, as the Rooks cannot reach those cells immediately anyway. A better way to fill out the low piece density would be to have 4 players, so that 4 of the faces have a conventional FIDE confrontation - I suggest the vertical faces for ease of player access. I have said much the same of Raumschach, which brings me on to your own 5x5x5 version. This looks a satisfactory 2-player variant. All this doubling up of selected pieces, though, makes me wonder about doubling them all up. How about a 6x6x6, with twice the usual number of everything on the cells exclusive to 2 opposite faces, and Pawns on those shared between 2 (but not 3) faces? My Quadruple Besiege arrays can be extraploated to such a variant.