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Chak. A modern vision of what a Mayan chess would look like.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
H. G. Muller wrote on Sun, Jan 16, 2022 02:40 PM UTC in reply to Daniel Lee from 03:29 AM:

Interesting variant. The following Diagram gives a good approximation. (Requires a refresh of the browser cache, to make pieces without any moves work.)

ranks=9 files=9 firstRank=1 graphicsDir=../graphics.dir/chak/ background=/graphics.dir/chak/chak.png whitePrefix=w blackPrefix=b graphicsType=png darkShade=# lightShade=# rimColor=#FFFFFE coordColor=#000000 squareSize=50 useMarkers=1 borders=0 symmetry=rotate promoZone=5 promoOffset=8 promoChoice=!P!K maxPromote=2 royal=2 royal=10 stalemate=win counterbare=lose pawn::fsmWfcF::a3,c3,e3,g3,i3 king::K::e1 offering::-:fish:e2 shaman::FvW::c1,g1 vulture::N:knight:b1,h1 serpent:R:R:rook:a1,i1 quetzal::pQ:leo:f1 jaguar::KN:centaur:d1 warrior::FvW:: divine king::Q2:emperor:

I also had to implement something for winning by reaching a target square. Such a game rule is also encountered in King of the Hill and Kahn Chess. For the moment this is handled through the routine BadZone() in a user-supplied script, (which was needed here anyway for preventing promoted pieces move back into their own half): when this function returns -1 the Diagram's standard script now interprets this as a winning move, rather than a forbidden move. Such a win is treated as baring in Shatranj, so that there is an after-move for proving the move was legal, and would declare a loss instead if it exposed royalty to capture. This again required the result of counter-baring to be specified by a parameter, (rather than always being a draw), as it should not be possible to draw here by reaching the Altar on the half-move following the one where the opponent did.