Critter Mate Chess
Familiar Chess is a fairy variant of minichess played on a 6 by 6 square board, featuring fantasy pieces. It shares lineage with the Musketeer Chess family, influenced in part by Zied Haddad's Musketeer Chess and by Sittuyin.
The concept of Familiar Chess emerged from reflections on the problem of setting pieces on a 6x6 mini-chess board. Traditionally, such boards lack bishops or knights, or feature only one of each, alongside two rooks. Recognizing the potential within this format, the idea arose to introduce an additional fairy piece ("familiar") on the last row while preserving the simplicity and dynamism of mini chess.
Familiar Chess prioritizes simplicity, making it accessible to players of all levels and conducive to training. Players must strategize their initial setup, creating some kind of 'tabia', and select a familiar piece to complement their chosen attack strategy optimally. Moreover, deliberately placing pieces suboptimally and choosing a weaker familiar can allow more experienced players to provide a subtle advantage to less experienced partners.
By embracing simplicity and strategic potential, Familiar Chess offers an accessible way to fairy chess, making it an engaging option for players seeking both challenge and accessibility.
Setup
The game board is divided into two halves. At the start of the game, each player secretly places pieces on their half of the board.
Six pawns are placed on the second/fifth row.
On the first/sixth row, players place the king, queen, rook, bishop, knight, and one of four familiar pieces: Hound, Hippogriff, Wild Cat, or Raven (Corvus). The pieces could be placed arbitrarily, with one restriction – the familiar piece should be placed next to the king, on one of the two closest squares.
Initial setup example - Hippogryph vs Hound
Pieces
The knight, queen, rook, bishop, and knight move according to the rules of orthodox chess.
Castling is possible if there are no more than two free cells between the king and the rook. The king cannot castle if it is in check or if the square it must pass through is under attack.
Pawns move according to the usual rules of orthodox chess, without the option for a double move at the beginning or capturing en passant. A pawn can be promoted to any regular chess piece upon reaching the last rank, similar to orthodox chess rules. Additionally, a pawn can be promoted to the same familiar piece the player had at the start of the game, but only if that familiar piece is no longer on the board.
Four new fairy pieces were added to the standard set: Hippogryph, Hound, Corvus (Raven), and Wild Cat.
In the following diagrams, arrows indicate a jump (similar to the knight in orthodox chess), while circles represent regular moves. All familiar pieces are leapers, they capture and move in the same way.
Hippogryph: (G) KAD, equivalent of Mammoth or Mastodon. The game could be played with those pieces instead.
Corvus (C): WAN
Hound (H): W2N
WildCat (W) F2N. The WildCat is the equivalent of Leopard in musketeer chess.
Rules
The game is played by two players on a 36-square 6 x 6 board.
The game begins after both players have placed their pieces and connected the halves of the board.
White moves first, but only Black can utilize the familiar piece on their first move.
To win, you need to checkmate your opponent's king, just like in orthodox chess.
Stalemate, perpetual check, and threefold repetition of position result in a draw.
Notes
From the perspective of the historical background of the game, familiars inherit the idea of royal bodyguards from Eastern chess xiangqi and shogi. Unlike their xiangqi prototypes, familiars can freely move across the board and are not restricted by the "palace" space, but their ability to control nearby squares makes them valuable pieces in defense.
Additionally, I have prepared several puzzles to better understand the tactics and potential of the fairy figures used in the game.
Hippogryph problem I: Black's turn, play to get maximum advantage.
Hippogryph problem II: White's turn, play for the win
Hound problem: White's turn, play for the win
Corvus problem: white's turn, play for the win
WildCat problem: White's turn, play for the win
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By Ilya Yudovski.
Last revised by Ilya Yudovski.
Web page created: 2024-02-29. Web page last updated: 2024-02-29