Xhess

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Board

Pieces

King

A King can move to any adjacent square, but never to a square where it can be captured. If a player moves their King to the furthest rank, that player wins the game. Checkmating the opponent's King also will win the game.


Queen

A Queen moves any number of squares in a straight line. It may not leap over other pieces.


Nightrider

Moves like a chess Knight, but may continue a series of leaps in the same direction. One of the most popular fairy chess pieces, it was invented in 1925 by T. R. Dawson.


Cannon

Cannons move like Rooks, by sliding any number of squares along a row or column, but they can capture an enemy only if there is another piece (of either side) in between. Thus to capture they leap over the intervening piece and land on the enemy piece, like a cannonball. One account of Xiangqi dates the introduction of the cannon at 839 A.D.


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.


Bishop

A Bishop moves any number of squares on a diagonal. It may not leap over other pieces.


Horseman

A Horseman can move straight ahead one square. A Horseman captures by moving one square diagonally forward. A Horseman may also move like a non-jumping, non-capturing knight, but only in a forward direction. The knight move is one square to either side or forward, then one square diagonally outward. If a Horseman reaches the far rank it promotes, changing into a Knight, Nightrider, Bishop, Cannon, Rook, or Queen.


Description

Normal Chess with the following exceptions:

  1. No castling
  2. No initial double move for pawns (horsemen)
  3. No en passant
  4. Extra win condition: move King to last row
  5. Horsemen instead of pawns
  6. Added Nightriders and Cannons

History

Simple large chess variant invented by David Howe in January 1999. Inspired by: Fergus Duniho's Cavalier Chess, and Christiaan Freeling's Grand Chess. Pieces created using Eric Bentzen's Chess Alpha font.

Strategy

TBD.

More information on Xhess can be found at http://www.chessvariants.com/large.dir/xhess.html.