Comments/Ratings for a Single Item

ATTENTION: the following diagram and rules are (c) 2004 Jim Aikin and are taken from his webpage Five Up. Note: Jim's 5x5x5 variant sets up the White pieces on the top two levels, thus requiring the White Pawns to move downwards. Apart from this change, his pawn movement rules are the same as those stated in my comment ten days earlier.

Figure 6. The white pawn shown here, which is advancing toward the A5 row, 
can make capturing moves to the cells marked 'x' and non-capturing moves to the cells marked '+'.

   _ _ _ _ _     _ _ _ _ _     _ _ _ _ _     _ _ _ _ _     _ _ _ _ _  
5 |_|_|_|_|_| 5 |_|_|_|_|_| 5 |_|_|_|_|_| 5 |_|_|_|_|_| 5 |_|_|_|_|_| 
4 |_|_|_|_|_| 4 |_|x|_|_|_| 4 |x|+|x|_|_| 4 |_|_|_|_|_| 4 |_|_|_|_|_| 
3 |_|_|_|_|_| 3 |x|+|x|_|_| 3 |_|P|_|_|_| 3 |_|_|_|_|_| 3 |_|_|_|_|_| 
2 |_|_|_|_|_| 2 |_|_|_|_|_| 2 |_|_|_|_|_| 2 |_|_|_|_|_| 2 |_|_|_|_|_| 
1 |_|_|_|_|_| 1 |_|_|_|_|_| 1 |_|_|_|_|_| 1 |_|_|_|_|_| 1 |_|_|_|_|_| 
A  a b c d e  B  a b c d e  C  a b c d e  D  a b c d e  E  a b c d e 

The initial setup of the black pieces is wrong. 
For the correct starting array swap the black Bishops with the Unicorns. Then you get the following arrangement at the Level D:

+---+---+---+---+---+
| u | b | q | u | b | 5  Queen Dc5; Bishop Db5, De5; Unicorn Da5, Dd5; 
+---+---+---+---+---+
| p | p | p | p | p | 4  Pawn Da4, Db4, Dc4; Dd4; De4.
+---+---+---+---+---+
|   |   |   |   |   | 3
+---+---+---+---+---+
|   |   |   |   |   | 2
+---+---+---+---+---+
|   |   |   |   |   | 1
+---+---+---+---+---+
  a   b   c   d   e

Unfortunately also the Zillions file in 'raum.zip' copied this error.

The error does not occur at the old page for this variant: 'http://www.chessvariants.com/old.dir/3d5.html'.

See also the books:
 Anthony Dickins: A Guide to Fairy Chess, and
 D. B. Pritchard: The Encyclopedia of Chess Variants.

This page (& the associated Zillions rules file) would be good if the pieces were set up correctly. Mr Pfieffer is right: according to Anthony Dickins "A Guide to Fairy Chess" the positions of the Black pieces on the D-level should be:

Da5-Unicorn, Db5-Bishop, Dc5-Queen, Dd5-Unicorn, De5-Bishop.

That is, each player should see each of their Bishops to the left of each of their Unicorns. Unfortunately the author has not yet corrected this error.

Dickins' book is a secondary source, based on articles by T.R.Dawson in Chess Amateur 1926. The most authoritative source would be Ferdinand Maack's original three books in German; if anyone has access to these books and can show that Dickins was wrong, then I stand corrected. However this page references Dickins' book without correctly implementing it.

There are problems with Raumschach as a game, one being the incomplete coverage of the 3D-board by the Unicorns. However Raumschach has a place in Chess history, and should be correctly presented with all its faults.

I noted an acknowledgement of Mr Pfieffer in pointing out the error. However there is no acknowledgement of David Paulowich for pointing out another error. According to Dickins' book Black pawns promote on A first rank, White pawns promote on E fifth rank.

H.G. wrote:

K.Pacey> in Raumschach there are possible mating positions with a K & B plus R

"How do you envisage that? Even in a corner the bare King can only be limited to a plane, and the other pieces would have to cover 4 squares in that plane (including the one the bare King is on). A Bishop could check and cover one of those at the same time, but the only way for a Rook to cover the other two would put it in a place that blocks the Bishop from checking.

I think you need at least two Rooks to have a mate position. And I am not sure that is forcible."

Hi H.G.

I imagined the lone K in a corner on the upper level. The superior side's K would be in opposition to it on the same file (say), same level. The superior side's B would be on the square between them on the same file, same level. The superior side's R (the mating piece) would be on the same corner square as the lone king, except one level below it. The R would be protected by the B. Thus, aside from the superior side's K guarding 4 critical squares, the B guards 2 critical squares (including one on the upper level), and the R guards 2 critical squares (including one on the level below the Ks). That's if I've visualized this all correctly.

Two possibly interesting variations on the rules of Raumschach could be based on altering its setup postion, replacing each side's rather weak Unicorns with either Manns (non-royal pieces that move like kings), or alternatively compound pieces, all of Mann & Unicorn movement capabilities combined. I tend to fancy the latter alternative at the moment (keeping the setup position the same in other respects). In either variation of the rules, the Unicorns are replaced with in effect major pieces (joining the queen as one), and perhaps significantly increasing the possibility of delivering an early mate (moreso if the suggested compound pieces are used). Meanwhile, rooks, bishops and knights are still preserved as relative minor pieces, and might be swapped without great loss for a few pawns if required during a game.

I'm not sure either idea for a variation on the rules of Raumschach would be significant enough to warrant 1 or 2 submissions to CVP, but I thought I'd put the variations out there for possible discussion, at least. As an aside, I think Alice Chess is, to date, the ultimate 3D variant as far as being chess-like, but if Raumschach can be improved on somehow that still may be worthwhile as a goal.

I'd tentatively estimate the relative piece values in Raumschach as follows:

P=1; U=1.75; R=3; B=3.25; N=5; Q=10, and a K has a fighting value =6.66 (noting it can't be traded).

What if you changed the unicorn so that in addition to its normal move/capture movement along the corners of cubes, it could move (but not capture) only one square along a diagonal edge of a cube?  That would allow each unicorn to cover all the squares of it's color, without making it too overpowered. 

The description for the knight is incorrect. It should read that the knight moves tw squares in one rook wise direction and 1 in another. The piece's current description, while making the same piece as the first one on 2d boards, gives a different piece on 3d boards

@Kelvin, I think these are equivalent, because of the current text's requirement "always in the same coordinate plane," or from the later "never step through the corner of a cell."

Also equivalent, I think, is the one-orthogonal one-diagonal-outward if this page treated the unicorn's "triagonal" as non-diagonal.  I think maybe the easiest description would be "like a knight in any of the coordinate planes," but that's probably pretty subjective.

If you disagree with any of these equivalences, could you point out an example move that one has that the other doesn't?

I found the book from the inventor describing the game in 1919:

https://core.ac.uk/reader/14514151.

He gives multiple versions of the starting position and rules for pawn movement, as well as also describing some 4x4x4 and 7x7x7 variants. The version this article covers is the 10 pawn version (C³) of type C "Neue", which Maack calls the normal way to play. There is also the type A "alte" with pawns only on the γ level, and the type B "vier Einhörnern" where each side has four unicorns, but only one rook and knight, in order to span the whole board with each piece. All of the diagrams in the book show point reflection symmetry, not rotation symmetry, between the two sides, contrary to this article. The type B "reduzierte" pawn movement which the author prefers is disliked by Maack, in favor of the type C "neue" pawn which includes the forward-and-vertical capture.

Please make good use of this primary source, which, it seems, no one until now has found.

Excellent! Thank you very much

I am extremely curious as to what you came up with in regards to a Raumschach board which allows you to visualize the unicorns without taking away from the visualization of the bishops. I don’t know if this comment will notify you, but if it does and you still have the diagrams my email is carsonkcharles@gmail.com. I’m quite late to this page but I only recently found this game and am greatly enjoying learning it.

The promotion zone the article mentions makes no sense to me: Pawns can be moved such that they never could reach the zone. It would make more sense to have white Pawns promote where the black (non-Pawn) pieces start. So the far end of level D and E, not of A and B.

The promotion zone the article mentions makes no sense to me

Indeed. And the CECV and Moeser both say that the promotion zones are E*5 and A*1. (Not also D*5 and B*1 as you suggest, perhaps just because the pawns there can still advance one more.)

Also, @Fergus, the green version of the item description here is completely unreadable on the new background color of comment headers.

Also, @Fergus, the green version of the item description here is completely unreadable on the new background color of comment headers.

I was getting ready to give the same note. :)