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

This page is written by the game's inventor, Daniel Brown.

J-Chess

In June of 1999, Daniel Brown wrote to us:

In order to increase the randomness of the playing field I have come up with the following variant which I think is viable.

Convert to a 10x8 board and add two pieces - King and Queen Jesters. These Jesters move two squares diagonal in one direction and one in the 90 degree direction. In other words like a knight but diagonally. This allows for rapid capture of the center squares. I allow it to jump pieces like a knight but it is ranked less than a knight and only higher than a pawn. Add extra pawns to fill in the gaps in front of the Jesters. Give it a try!

Initial Setup

   +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
   | r | n | b | j | q | k | j | b | n | r |
   +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+  Jesters are inserted between
the King and
   | p | p | p | p | p | p | p | p | p | p |  King's Bishop, and between the
Queen and
   +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+  Queen's Bishop.
   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |
   +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |
   +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |
   +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |
   +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
   | P | P | P | P | P | P | P | P | P | P |
   +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
   | R | N | B | J | Q | K | J | B | N | R |
   +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+

Jester's Move Example

   +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
   | r | n | b | j | q | k | j | b | n | r |
   +---+---+---*---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
   | p | p | *p| p | p | p | p | p | p | p |
   +---+---*---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
   |   | * |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |
   +---+---*---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
   |   |   | X |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |
   +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |
   +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |
   +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
   | P | P | P | P | P | P | P | P | P | P |
   +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
   | R | N | B | J | Q | K | J | B | N | R |
   +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+

Comment

See for a modern commercial variant which is very similar: Cardinals Super Chess. (Differences are in the jumping of the Jesters and the size of the board.) (HB.)
Written by Daniel Brown. HTML conversion by David Howe. Comment by Hans Bodlaender.
WWW page created: June 23, 1999.