Balbo's chess

This game, invented by M. G. Balbo in 1974, is mentioned in Pritchard's Encyclopedia of Chess Variants.

Board and rules

The board of this game has a unusual shape: the length of rows is, consecutively, three, five, seven, nine, eleven, eleven, nine, five, three. The board and opening setup is as follows.

White:
King e1; Queen g1; Rook d2, h2; Knight e2, g2; Bishop f1, f2; Pawn c3, d3, e3, f3, g3, h3, i3.

Black:
King e10; Queen g10; Rook d9, h9; Knight e9, g9; Bishop f10, f9; Pawn c8, d8, e8, f8, g8, h8, i8.

Pawns promote on the tenth rank, or on the squares d9, h9 (for white), or d2, h2 (for black) to queen, bishop, rook, or knight, and on the squares c8, i8 (for white), or c3, i3 (for black) to bishop, rook or knight.

Pritchard warns that against stupid play, each player has Nxf3/8 mate on the third move.

Play It!

Use Zillions of Games to play this game! If you have Zillions of Games installed, you can download this game and play it.

Written by Hans Bodlaender.

WWW page created: November 6, 1995.

Submit this game to be available for rating!

For author and/or inventor information on this item see: this item's information page.
Created on: November 06, 1995. Last modified on: November 06, 1995.

Balbo's chess

Board and rules

Play It!

See Also

Comments