Separate Realms Chess II
This is another variation on the theme of Separate Realms Chess. Characteristic
for it are divergent pieces whose move without capture is restricted
and who can reach only a limited realm of the chessboard without
capture. A greater realm or the full board are reachable with
capturing moves.
Introduction
In the beginning was an odd piece dreamt by Peter Aronson, now known
as Separate Realms Rook. It characteristic features are the following.
It can capture like a full Chess Rook, however its motion without
capturing is restricted to a subset of the full movement. Without
capturing it can only reach a part of the squares on the chessboard
(in case of the Separate Realms Rook it is only one quarter. The
weakness is partly compensated by the ability to jump pieces.
Mike Nelson joined the discussion and soon Peter and Mike designed
an interesting chess variant around the theme above. I still kept on
thinking about the theme and here I come up with a variation of
Separate Realms Chess.
The Pieces
Pawns and King are the same as in FIDE Chess.
The Rook is the odd piece posted by Peter Aronson that started the
creation of separate realms chess: The Separate Realms Rook, moving as
a Dabbabah-Rider and capturing as a Rook.
On the Knights' positions: The Separate Realms Gnu, moving as a Camel ((1,3)-leaper),
capturing as a Camel or a Knight.
The black circles/'*'s indicate where the Gnu can both move and
capture, the red circles/'!'s indicate where it can only capture.
On the Bishops' positions: The Separate Realms Bishop, moving as an
Alfil-Rider and capturing as a Bishop.
On the Queens' position: The Separate Realms II Queen, moving as a
Separate Realms Rook or a FIDE Bishop and capturing as a Queen. It is
different from the Separate Realms Queen which is a combination of
Separate Realms Rook and Separate Realms Bishop.
The black circles/'*'s indicate where the Queen can both move and
capture, the red circles/'!'s indicate where it can only capture.
Aim of the Game
Checkmate the opponents' king. The usual FIDE Chess rules apply.
Notes
The SR Rook has the 'can mate'-property for most of the positions. It has
a blind spot in one corner, where it cannot capture. A typical mating
maneuver by the SR Rook look like:
White: SRRg8, Kh7; Black Kf8.
1. Kh8 Ke8
2. Kg8 Kd8
...
5. ... Ka8
6. Kc7! Ka7
7. SRRg5 Ka6
8. SRRe5 Ka7
9. SRRa5 #
The SRII Queen has a larger realm than the SR Rook without the blind spot.
I prefer the SR Gnu in the Knight's position because it has a fully
symmetric move pattern. And, as a physicist, I love symmetries.
This army is not tuned for Chess
with Different Armies -- it will very probably turn out too
weak. Adding a little bit of strength (maybe mcA to the Rooks or mcD
to the Bishops) may balance the game.
References:
Written by Jörg Knappen.
WWW page created: November 13th, 2002.