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This page is written by the game's inventor, Jörg Knappen.

10-directional Chess

By Jörg Knappen
Introduction
Equipment
Setup
Pieces
Rules
Notes
References

Introduction

This game was submitted to the Chess Variant Pages 10-year Anniversary Contest. It features pieces that move in 10 directions.

Board and Equipment

10-directional Chess is played on a standard chess board with standard equipment.

Setup

10-directional Chess is played with standard Rooks, Bishops, Kings and Pawns.

The Knights and the Queens are replaced by new 10-directional pieces called Eohippos (German: Urpferdchen) and Fischers.

Pieces

The Eohippos (Das Urpferdchen):

The Eohippos is an augmented Knight. In addition to the normal moves of the Knight is can also move one space forward or backward. In Ralph Betza's notation, it is a NfbW.

The Fischer:

The Fischer is a restricted version of the Chancellor or Marshall piece. It has the moves of the Knight and the forward and backward moves of the Rook. It cannot move sideways. In Ralph Betza's notation, it is a NfbR.

Rules

The aim of the game is to checkmate your opponent. The usual rules of FIDE chess for draws and castling apply.

Notes

The Fischer is kind of a vice-chancellor and it is named after the current German vice-chancellor and minister of exterior Joschka Fischer. The name Eohippos shows a connection to Fischer: when he became environmental minister of the state of Hessen, he saved the Grube Messel where famous Eohippos fossils are found from becoming a waste dump.

The game as proposed here is played with two equal armies. The 10-directional army has a strange material balance with a very light "vice-Queen" and an enhanced Knight. Therefore it is hard to estimate how it compares to a standard FIDE army. By a rough estimate it qualifies as an experimental army for chess with different armies.

References