Grand 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.


Queen

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


Marshall

The Marshall combines the moves of the rook and knight in standard chess.


Cardinal

The Cardinal can move like a bishop or a knight from standard chess.


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.


Pawn

A Pawn can move straight ahead one square, or two squares from its starting position. A Pawn captures by moving one square ahead and diagonally. On rare occasions Pawns can also execute a move called `En Passant`, or `in passing`. This allows a Pawn to take an enemy Pawn that has just moved two squares.

Upon reaching eighth rank, Pawns promote to any captured piece. Promotion is not mandatory and is also possible on ninth and tenth rank. However, the Pawn can not move to tenth rank if there are no pieces to promote to, although it can still give check from the ninth rank.


Description

Christian Freeling's game Grand Chess is considered one of the best large chess variants. The major differences from ordinary chess are the 10x10 board, less tangled Rooks and the two new pieces, the Cardinal (combines the moves of Knight and Bishop) and the Marshall (combining the moves of Knight and Rook). There is no castling. Pawns may promote at the eighth row, but only to pieces captured by the opponent. Promotion is not obligatory until tenth row. If no pieces are captured, pawns cannot move to the tenth row.

Other rules are similar to ordinary chess.

History

Grand Chess was constructed by Dutch games designer Christian Freeling. It is in many ways an improved version of Capablanca's large chess.

Strategy

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

More information on Grand Chess can be found at http://www.chessvariants.com/large.dir/freeling.html.