Apothecary Chess-Classic
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Apothecary Chess - Classic is an Grand Chess and Omega Chess inspired large board variant that features the joker who imitates the last moved enemy piece at every turn, along with the capablanca compounds and two new minor pieces of which one (the siege elephant) is specific only to this game at the time of the game's creation. The game can be played by corespondence against human players here : https://www.chessvariants.com/play/pbm/play.php?game=Apothecary+Chess-Classic&settings=ApothecaryChess-Classic
Setup
The board is 10x10 with 8 brouhaha squares (more on them later) so 10x10+8. The ranks are numbered (0),1,2,3,...9,10,(11) and the files are denoted with a,b,c,...i,j. The parentheses stand for ranks that have only brouhaha squares. There are 24 possible initial setups for this game. For the purpose of explaining the initial setup pieces are split in seven categories: 1. The king has a fixed start location f2 for white f9 for black. 2. Average pieces are the two rooks of each player which also have fixed start locations, a1 and j1 for white and a10 and j10 for black 3. The strong pieces (three of them Queen, Chancellor,Archbishop; are the three most powerfull pieces in the game). They are placed on the board according to two variables. The first is a binary variable (may be represented by a coin toss) which can take the values winged (false,0,tails) or grand classic(true,1,heads). If the variable is winged then the three major pieces occupy the b2,e2,i2 squares for white and b9,e9,i9 for black. If the variable is grand classic (a reference on how the pieces are arranged in Cristian Freeling's Grand Chess) then the three major pieces occupy the d2,e2,g2 squares for white and d9,e9,g9 squares for black. Either way there are three spots and three major pieces to fill those spots. For that we have the second variable with six possible values (3 factorial). A dice throw may decide where pieces go like below: 1. from left to right Archbishop,Chancellor,Queen 2. from left to right Archbishop,Queen,Chancellor 3. from left to right Chancellor,Archbishop,Queen 4. from left to right Chancellor,Queen,Archbishop 5. from left to right Queen,Archbishop,Chancellor 6. from left to right Queen,Chancellor,Archbishop 4. The classic auxiliary minor pieces are the bishops and knights. They start on the 2nd (for white) and 9th (for black) rank, never on the a or j files in the spots left free by the major pieces. They too have two ways of arranging that could be represented by a coin toss. The first way is named bishops in (true,1,heads) and means the bishops are in the positions closer to the king (c2,h2,c9,h9 in grand classic, d2,g2,d9,g9 in winged). The second way is named knights in (false,0,tails) and means that the knights are in the above mentioned closer to the king position. So two coin tosses and one dice throw means 2x2x6=24 possibilities. 5. The new auxiliary pieces are the siege elephant and the mameluk. They start in the brouhaha squares which are temporary squares set outside the normal board. These squares are: d0,e0,g0,h0,d11,e11,g11,h11. The d and g always filled by mameluks and the e and h files are always filled by elephants. Bruohaha squares disapear when they become empty. The only way for other pieces than the usual ones to land on the brouhaha squares is to capture a piece already there. 6. The joker (jester,fool) also ocupies a brouhaha sqaure. That is f0 for white and f11 for black. 7. Pawns fill the third rank of each player (3rd rank for white, 8th rank for black) The starting positions are numbered from 1 to 24. A position is obtained throgh the formula 12xclassicminor+6xstrong+dicethrow. For example below we have initial position number 14. Notice the pink brouhaha squares.
https://www.chessvariants.com/play/pbm/drawdiagram.php?code=---%7Bca%7Dej%7Bca%7De--%2Fr8r%2F1%7Bab%7Dbn%7Bch%7Dknbq1%2Fpppppppppp%2F10%2F10%2F10%2F10%2FPPPPPPPPPP%2F1%7BAB%7DBN%7BCH%7DKNBQ1%2FR8R%2F---%7BCA%7DEJ%7BCA%7DE--&cols=10&files=a+b+c+d+e+f+g+h+i+j&ranks=0+1+2+3+4+5+6+7+8+9+10+11&set=apothecary-standard&board=23.10.01.10.01.10.01.10.01.10.01.32.&colors=339933+CCCC11+DD99DD+FFBBFF
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By Aurelian Florea.
Last revised by Aurelian Florea.
Web page created: 2020-06-12. Web page last updated: 2020-10-03