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This page is written by the game's inventor, Gary Gifford.

Chess Latrunculi duo milia et septum

Chess Latrunculi duo milia et septum* was inspired by a belief that new chess-like games are unlikely to use non-fide pieces while staying true to the standard eight by eight board.
So, I thought of this modest variant, which is very close to chess but changes it quite a bit. It borrows from the Dragon-King and Dragon Horse of Shogi.
* "Latrunculi duo milia et septum is Latin."  It means, "Chess Two-Thousand and Seven"

Setup

As in FIDE Chess

Pieces

As in Fide Chess (with noted rule exception for rooks and bishops).

Rules

All rules are as in Fide Chess except:

1) Rooks can move as they usually move, or they can instead move one space diagonally (in place of the normal rook move).

2) Bishops can move as they usually move, or they can move one space orthoganaly (in place of the normal bishop move).  Thus you can have two dark-square or two light-square bishops without ever having promoted a pawn.

Notes

Computer Play:This game is fully supported by ChessV, a free open-source program for playing chess variants.

Play Online: This game can be played on this site using Game Courier using this preset.

(1) Collin's Latin Dictionary translates "Chess" into the Latin "Latrunculi." Elsewhere we can read that Latrunculi means "robber-soldiers" or "mercenaries." Latrunculi was actually the Roman Empire's most popular intellectual game. Many boards have been found which vary in size. The 8 x 8 board was the most common. (2) The following information is from George Duke: "As far back as Duke of Rutland's Chess year 1747 exists use of Crowned Rook(Rook+Ferz), and Logical Follow-up to Duke of Rutland's Chess recently has the Crowned Bishop(Bishop+Wazir)." (3)David Paulowich states that Ruggero Micheletto's 10 x 10 Ultra Chess is somewhat related to this game. He adds that that game give Rooks, Knights, and Bishops the ability to move to all adjacent squares. With two Queens and one Consort (Commoner) in each army.



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By Gary K. Gifford.
Web page created: 2007-09-05. Web page last updated: 2019-08-31