Check out Balbo's Chess, our featured variant for October, 2024.

This page is written by the game's inventor, wdtr2. This game is a favorite of its inventor.

Shako_Balbo

Shako_Balbo is a chess game that is a fusion to two chess variants. The concept came after playing these chess variants. Special thanks should be Awarded to Aurelian Florea, Greg Strong, Fergus Duniho, Jean-Louis Cazaux, and M. G. Balbo for this game.

Setup

Pieces

The chess pieces are the standard pieces with the addition of an elephant, and a cannon. The Elephant leaps 1 or 2 squares diagonally. The Cannon is a standard Chinese Cannon. It may move in an orthogonal direction. To capture a piece it leaps over 1 piece (white or black) and then captures the piece after the leap. The Pawns can do a 1 step or 2 step on the 1st move. En Passant is active, and pawn promotion occurs when the pawn can not go forward anymore. This means that position A7 is a promotion spot for a white pawn.

Rules

Any chess player familar with the rules of chess should be comfortable playing this game. 

Notes

1) Shako

Inspired by several old chess variants, Jean-Louis Cazaux from Toulouse (France) invented this variant.

The rules of shako are found here

The game of shako can be played here


2) Balbo's chess

This game, invented by M. G. Balbo in 1974, is mentioned in Pritchard's Encyclopedia of Chess Variants.

The rules of Balbo's chess are located here

Balbo's chess game can be played here


A variant of Balbo's chess that shows legal moves and has a slightly different pawn promotion can be found here

Balbo's chess game version 2 can be played here


3) Shako_Balbo

The game of Shako_Balbo can be played here



This 'user submitted' page is a collaboration between the posting user and the Chess Variant Pages. Registered contributors to the Chess Variant Pages have the ability to post their own works, subject to review and editing by the Chess Variant Pages Editorial Staff.


By wdtr2.

Last revised by Fergus Duniho.


Web page created: 2019-01-12. Web page last updated: 2024-04-27