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

This page is written by the game's inventor, Doug Chatham.

Two Pipe Chess

This game is an entry in the contest to create a 41-square chess variant. The name is based on the initial arrangement of pieces, which looks somewhat like two tobacco pipes. (Also, the board can be seen as two pipes surrounding a three-rank, five-file center rectangle.)

Board Setup

The board has nine files and five ranks, with squares a5, b5, h1 and i1 removed, and has this initial setup:

Rules

Pieces move as in regular chess, except
(1) there is no castling
(2) pawns promote on the fifth rank and
(3) there are no bishops (and pawns cannot promote to bishops).

ZRF-file

Here a Zillions of Games implementation of Two Pipe Chess: 2pipe.zip

Written by: Doug Chatham.

This game is an entry in the 41-Square Variant Contest.

WWW page created: October 19, 2000.

WWW page revised: March 16, 2001.