Courier Chess

Board | Pieces | Description | History | Strategy | Back to Index

Board

Pieces

King

A King can move to any adjacent square, but never to a square where it can be captured. There is no castling.


Queen

Like the Fers of Shatranj, the Queen can take a single step along any diagonal. It may not move orthogonally. Despite being confined to squares of one color, it is a stronger piece than the Fool (or Wazir), because it can move across the board more rapidly.


Man

A Man can move to any adjacent square.


Fool

The Fool steps 1 square orthogonally.


Elephant/Alfil

Elephants shift two squares diagonally, jumping over anything in between.


Rook

A Rook moves any number of squares orthogonally on a rank or a file. It may not leap over other pieces.


Knight

A Knight moves like an `L`, two squares vertically plus one horizontally, or two squares horizontally plus one vertically. It hops over any pieces on the way.


Courier

A Courier moves any number of squares on a diagonal. It may not leap over other pieces. Equivalent to the modern Bishop.


Pawn

A Pawn can move straight ahead one square, or capture by moving one square ahead and diagonally.

There is no double-step first move. Promotion is to Queen.


Description

Played like modern Chess, except:

  • The King may not castle
  • The Queen only moves a single step diagonally
  • The Bishops are Elephants, which jump two squares diagonally
  • The Couriers are Bishops, and slide any number of squares diagonally
  • A Pawn may only move one square and only promote to a Queen
  • In addition to checkmate, a player can also win by stalemating the opponent. Another way to win is to capture all the opponent's pieces (except the King)

History

Courier Chess was a large variation probably originating in Germany in or before the 12th century. Unusually for a large variation, it remained popular for hundreds of years. For a more detailed history see Murray's `A History of Chess.`

Strategy

Most things that are valid in ordinary chess also goes for Courier Chess.

More information on Courier Chess can be found at http://www.chessvariants.com/historic.dir/courier.html.