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Spherical chess is a game information page. It is categorized as: Two dimensional.

Spherical chess. Sides of the board are considered to be connected to form a sphere. (8x8, Cells: 64)

Author: Alessandro Castelli and Fergus Duniho. Inventor: Don Miller and Leo Nadvorney.

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The board used for this game has 8 row(s), 8 column(s), 64 cells/squares.
This game is a 2 player game.

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Group ID 'spherical-chess'

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Author: Alessandro Castelli and Fergus Duniho. Inventor: Don Miller and Leo Nadvorney.

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Spherical chess. Sides of the board are considered to be connected to form a sphere. (8x8, Cells: 64)

🕸📝Fergus Duniho wrote on Mon, Aug 2, 2021 10:34 PM EDT in reply to Bn Em from 01:04 PM:

On e.g. a 10‐file board, Miller's reasoning would line up with Nadvorney's.

That's a good point. On a 10-file board, the files would surround the pole in a way that makes diagonal movement more intuitive, and once the board was defined, it would be easy to make spherical adaptations of various 10x8 variants like Grotesque Chess and other related games or 10x10 variants like Grand Chess.

🕸📝Fergus Duniho wrote on Mon, Aug 2, 2021 10:24 PM EDT in reply to Bn Em from 01:04 PM:

All I did to the original diagram was change its formatting to make it easier to read. I got the idea for putting a box around the main board from Pritchard, who did the same, but unlike him, I left all the inner coordinates in.

Bn Em wrote on Mon, Aug 2, 2021 01:04 PM EDT:

While on its own the original diagram on this page was a bit obscure, in conjunction with Fergus' circular diagrams it really clarifies the rationale behind Nadvorney's interpretation of the diagonal move; a bit of thought also reveals why Miller's reasoning in keeping the bishop on its own colour is flawed: if the bishop stays on its own colour you would expect a rook stepping over the pole to change colour as it does on a normal square‐cell board, whereas here (or on any spherical/Klein‐bottle‐shaped board with a multiple of four files) it doesn't. On e.g. a 10‐file board, Miller's reasoning would line up with Nadvorney's.

As for Chess on the Dot, the change in the diagonal's handedness at the poles also keeps it on one colour (on a board of this parity), but isn't stirctly necessary for a closed loop: Nadvorney's version (as can be seen on its diagram) does it just as well, and even Miller's manages, albeit via a much more circuitous route.

Fwiw, here's the original diagram as salvaged from the Internet Archive:

c7  d7  e7  f7  g7  h7  a7  b7  c7  d7  e7  f7
c8  d8  e8  f8  g8  h8  a8  b8  c8  d8  e8  f8
g8  h8  a8  b8  c8  d8  e8  f8  g8  h8  a8  b8
g7  h7  a7  b7  c7  d7  e7  f7  g7  h7  a7  b7
g6  h6  a6  b6  c6  d6  e6  f6  g6  h6  a6  b6
g5  h5  a5  b5  c5  d5  e5  f5  g5  h5  a5  b5
g4  h4  a4  b4  c4  d4  e4  f4  g4  h4  a4  b4
g3  h3  a3  b3  c3  d3  e3  f3  g3  h3  a3  b3
g2  h2  a2  b2  c2  d2  e2  f2  g2  h2  a2  b2
g1  h1  a1  b1  c1  d1  e1  f1  g1  h1  a1  b1
c1  d1  e1  f1  g1  h1  a1  b1  c1  d1  e1  f1
c2  d2  e2  f2  g2  h2  a2  b2  c2  d2  e2  f2

🕸📝Fergus Duniho wrote on Thu, Jul 29, 2021 01:32 PM EDT:

I have updated this page with diagrams and more detailed descriptions.

🕸📝Fergus Duniho wrote on Tue, Jul 27, 2021 10:40 PM EDT:

I started on adding an introduction, but it's late, and I will have to wait until tomorrow to continue.

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First Created: Monday, September 30th, 1996
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File Timestamp: Wed, 13 Apr 2022 12:17:26 -0400
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