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

Apothecary Chess-Modern

This page contains one or more presets for playing a game online with Game Courier, an online server for playing Chess variants by correspondence.

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 bent riders griffin and aanca and the omega chess leapers the wizard and the champion. The game can be played by corespondence against human opponents here : https://www.chessvariants.com/play/pbm/play.php?game=Apothecary+Chess-Modern&settings=ApothecaryChess-Modern

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. The average pieces are the two rooks of each player. They also have fixed start locations: a1 and j1 for white and a10 and j10 for black 3. The strong pieces (three of them Queen, Dragon, Griffin; are the three strongest 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 strong 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 strong pieces occupy the d2,e2,g2 squares for white and d9,e9,g9 squares for black. Either way there are three spots and three strong 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 Griffin,Dragon,Queen 2. from left to right Griffin,Queen,Dragon 3. from left to right Dragon,Griffin,Queen 4. from left to right Dragon,Queen,Griffin 5. from left to right Queen,Griffin,Dragon 6. from left to right Queen,Dragon,Griffin 4. The classic auxiliary 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 wizards and champions. 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 files are always filled by wizards and the e and h files are always filled by champions. 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 through the formula 12xclassicauxiliary+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=---wcjwc--%2Fr8r%2F1gbndknbq1%2Fpppppppppp%2F10%2F10%2F10%2F10%2FPPPPPPPPPP%2F1GBNDKNBQ1%2FR8R%2F---WCJWC--&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

Pieces

The interactive diagram above show both the initial position (you must press restart in ordered to see it randomized) and piece movement while providinng a simple AI that plays the game. This game has 25 pieces per side of 11 different types (king and pawns included). From the perspective of strength and for pawns promotion purposes the pieces are split in 4 categories: 1. Strong pieces: Queen- like orthodox chess queen on a 10x10 board Dragon- moves one square diagonally and then towards outside orthogonally like a rook turning 45 degrees Griffin- moves one square orthogonally and then towards outside diagonally like a bishop turning 45 degrees 2. Average pieces : Rook- just an orthodox rook on a 10x10 board Joker (Jester, Fool)- Average piece in the opening;the strength of this piece is

This 'user submitted' page is a collaboration between the posting user and the Chess Variant Pages. Registered contributors to the Chess Variant Pages have the ability to post their own works, subject to review and editing by the Chess Variant Pages Editorial Staff.


By Aurelian Florea.

Last revised by Aurelian Florea.


Web page created: 2020-06-12. Web page last updated: 2020-10-03

Revisions of MPapothecary-chess-modern