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This page is written by the game's inventor, David Howe.

Quad-Square Chess

A Chess Variant invented by David Howe in October, 1997

Introduction

The inspiration for this game is Sub-Chess, invented by Alexander Chebotaryov in 1988. In this game, the board is really two boards in one. The central 16 squares are divided up into 64 squares, which form a board within a board.

I used a similar idea, but chose to make the squares larger, and allow more than one piece on them. This idea has been utilized to create a board that meets the 38 square board contest rules (which never stated that the squares had to be the same size!).

The Board

The board is made up of 38 squares. However, not all the squares are the same size. There are actually 32 normal sized squares, and 6 double-sized squares (which we'll call quad-squares). So, with a little cheating, I was able to create a 7x8 board with only 38 squares!



White

King d1; Queen e1; Bishop c1; Knight S2; Rook S1; Pawns a3,b3,c3,d3,e3,f3,g3

Black
King d8; Queen e8; Bishop c8; Knight S4; Rook S3; Pawns a6,b6,c6,d6,e6,f6,g6

S1=(a1,b1,a2,b2) S3=(a8,b8,a8,b8)
S2=(f1,g1,f2,g2) S4=(f8,g8,f7,g7)
M1=(b4,c4,b5,c5) M2=(e4,f4,e5,f5)


Notation


Rules

Sample Game

This is my first game of Quad-Square chess. Mercifully short, but should give some idea of the flavor of the game. The board is easy to setup: Simply cover one of the edge rows (to make a 7x8 board), and cut out six squares of paper large enough to cover 4 squares, and place the papers in the proper positions.



 1. c3-M1    e6-M2
 2. M1xd6    S4xd6
 3. e1-M1    e8-e7
 4. a3-a4    c8-e6
 5. M1-c3    b6-M1
 6. c3-c2    M1xd3
 7. c2-d2    d6-M1
 8. d2-e1    M2xe3
 9. S2xd3    S3-d7
10. d1-e2    f6-M2
11. d3-S1    M2xf3+
12. e2xf3    e6-M2+
13. f3-e2    M2-S2++

Final Position


Written by David Howe.
This is an entry in the Contest to make a chess variant on a board with 38 squares.
WWW page created: October 24, 1997.