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This page is written by the game's inventor, David Cannon. This game is a favorite of its inventor.

Round Honeycomb Chess

Round Honeycomb Chess is fundamentally a cross between two well-known families of variants: Circular Chess (also known as Cylindrical Chess, depending on how the board is depicted) and Hexagonal Chess. I thought putting the two together would bring up some interesting possibilities for play, so I set about designing a board and programming a Zillions of Games file for it.

I have programmed three variants, each using a different kind of pawn-like piece.

Anybody familiar with Glinski's or McCooey's should be able to grasp the basic concept of this game without any effort.

Setup

Black pieces encircle the hub of the board, and white pieces the rim.

White: King - a1; Queen - a8; Bishop - a2, a7, a9; Knight - a3, a6; Rook - a4, a5; Pawn - b1, b2, b3, b4, b5, b6, b7, b8, b9.

Black: King - k1; Queen - k8; Bishop - k2, k7, k9; Knight - k3, k6; Rook - k4, k5; Pawn - j1, j2, j3, j4, j5, j6, j7, j8, j9.

Note that one Bishop stands between the King and Queen, and one on each side of the monarchy.

N.B. The Zillions of Games file has three variants. Pawns are replaced by Guards in one variant and by Pincers in another.

Pieces

Rules

The object of the game is to win by checkmate or stalemate. A stalemate is better than a draw but not as good as a checkmate - in tournaments, award one point to the winner for a checkmate, half a point to the winner for a stalemate, and half a point to each player for a draw.

Notes

Play Round Honeycomb Chess!

I have programmed a Zillions of Games file to play this game. You may download it here. You need the Zillions of Games engine installed to play it.



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By David Cannon.
Web page created: 2010-02-27. Web page last updated: 2010-02-27