Palace

Palace is played on a 7x7 board. There is a 3x3 Palace at the centre of the board where the King, Archbishop (piece description below), and Rook can move and/or capture like the Queen.

Setup

The setup for Palace is similar to Orthodox Chess, except for the absence of the Queen and the replacement of the two Bishops flanking the King with Archbishops (piece description below):

There is a 3x3 Palace at the centre (rules description below).

Pieces

All the pieces move as in Orthodox Chess, except for the following:

• Pawn: Cannot double advance on its first move and hence also without the en passant ability
• Archbishop: Can move one square orthogonally without capturing in addition to the regular Bishop moveset

Rules

The Central Palace

Upon reaching the 3x3 Palace at the centre:

• King can move and capture like a Queen but is still subject to check.
• Archbishop can capture like a Queen but cannot move.
• Rook can capture like a Queen but cannot move.

These pieces will revert to their default moveset upon leaving the Palace.

Promotion

Upon reaching the last rank:

• Pawn promotes to Sage which moves and captures like a King.
• Knight promotes to Paladin which moves as a Knight, Dabbabah, or Alfil.

Notes

Play with the ChessCraft Android app:

Palace

Palace Variant

God King

5x5 board with Rooks replaced by Shields which promotes to Fortress at the last rank:

The King gains the move of a Paladin upon reaching the Palace square at the centre of the board. This effectively ends the game as it guarantees a checkmate in a 5x5 board. The King ascends to a God King and the opponent King has nowhere to run.

Last revised by Fergus Duniho.