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Triangular chess (game)

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Triangular chess gameboard and starting position

Triangular chess is a chess variant for two players invented by George R. Dekle Sr. in 1986.[1][2] The game is played on a hexagon-shaped gameboard comprising 96 triangular cells. Each player commands a full set of chess pieces in addition to three extra pawns and a unicorn.

Triangular chess and its variation tri-chess were included in World Game Review No. 10 edited by Michael Keller.[3]

Game rules

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The starting setup is as shown. As in chess, White moves first, and the object is checkmate. Other standard conventions apply as well, including castling, the pawn's initial two-step move, the en passant capture, and promotion at the last rank. The triangular geometry, however, implies special move patterns for the pieces.

Piece moves

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  • A rook moves in a straight line starting through a cell edge. (Three directions are possible.)
  • A bishop moves in a straight line starting through a cell vertex. (Three directions.)
  • The queen moves as a rook or bishop. (Six directions.)
  • The king moves one step as a queen. When castling, the king slides two cells if castling short (0-0); three cells if castling long (0-0-0).
  • A knight moves in the pattern: two steps as a bishop, then one step as a rook in an orthogonal direction. A knight leaps any intervening men.
  • The unicorn moves in the pattern: two steps as a rook, then one step as a rook in an orthogonal direction. Like a knight, the unicorn leaps any intervening men.
  • A pawn moves straight forward one step at a time, whether crossing a cell edge or vertex. On its first move it may optionally move two steps straight forward. A pawn captures to either cell adjoining the cell immediately in front, in the same rank.
  • If a pawn reaches a board edge where no step straight forward exists, the pawn continues to advance toward promotion using its capture move (whether there are men to capture or not).

Tri-chess

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Tri-chess is a variation of triangular chess created by Dekle in the same year.[4][2] The game is for two players and is the same as triangular chess in all respects except the moves of the bishop, rook, queen, and king are increased.

  • A bishop moves in six directions constituting board diagonals.
  • A rook moves in six directions along horizontal ranks or oblique files.
  • The queen moves as a rook or bishop. (Twelve directions.)
  • The king moves one step as a bishop or two steps as a rook.
The bishop moves along cells in the diagram colored dark gray.
The rook moves along cells in the diagram colored light gray.
The Tri-Chess king moves one step as a bishop (dark gray cells) or two steps as a rook (light gray cells).

See also

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Notes

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  1. ^ The notation system used identifies each cell by its horizontal rank (letter) and the intersection of two oblique files (two numbers).

References

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  1. ^ Pritchard (1994), pp. 321–22
  2. ^ a b Pritchard (2007), p. 213
  3. ^ Keller (1991)
  4. ^ Pritchard (1994), p. 323

Bibliography

  • Keller, Michael, ed. (June 1991). "A Panorama of Chess Variants". World Game Review. No. 10. Michael Keller. ISSN 1041-0546.
  • Pritchard, D. B. (1994). The Encyclopedia of Chess Variants. Games & Puzzles Publications. ISBN 0-9524142-0-1.
  • Pritchard, D. B. (2007). Beasley, John (ed.). The Classified Encyclopedia of Chess Variants. John Beasley. ISBN 978-0-9555168-0-1.
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