MANCHALA CHESS

DHRUV MANCHALA

Introduction

I got the idea of Manchala Chess in March, 2005. I tried out a number of variants but I wasn't happy with my results. I kept experimenting and I finally got Manchala Chess. This game is played on a 10 x 10 board and has 10 types of pieces.

Setup

White: King e1, Queen f1; Rook b1, i1; Horse c1, h1; Bishop d1, g1; Camel j1; Falcon a2, j2; Lord b2, i2; Officer c2, d2, e2, f2, g2, h2; Soldier a3, b3, c3, d3, e3, f3, g3, h3, i3, j3.
Black setup diagonally mirrored.

The game is played on a 10 x 10 board. Each side gets 1 King, 1 Queen, 1 Camel, 2 Rooks, 2 Horses, 2 Bishops, 2 Lords, 2 Falcons, 6 Officers, and 10 Soldiers.

K King moves like an orthodox King.
Q Queen moves like an orthodox Queen.
C Camel moves up to two spaces diagonally. It can jump over pieces.
R Rook moves like an orthodox Rook.
H Horse moves like an orthodox Knight.
B Bishop moves like an orthodox Bishop.
L Lord moves like a Bishop but captures one square orthogonally.
F Falcon moves like a like a Rook but captures one space diagonally.
O Officer moves like a Horse and Soldier.
S Soldier moves and promotes like a pawn.

Rules

You win the game by checkmating the opponent's king. An Officer can promote if its last move is a soldier move. Pawns get an initial two step option. There is en passant and castling.

Written by Dhruv Manchala. Webpage made by Hans Bodlaender. Webpage created: May 7, 2005.