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Raumschach. The classical variant of three-dimensional chess: 5 by 5 by 5. (5x(5x5), Cells: 125) (Recognized!)[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]

Charles Gilman wrote on Sun, May 25, 2003 06:56 AM UTC:

Further to my previous comments, I have devised two variants compensating
for Knights and Pawns being overstrengthened relative to Rooks and
Bishops, and eliminating square-colour imbalances.
	Millstone uses a wraparound board, inspired by an add-on to Jim Aikin's
Five Up (under F, not 5, in the 3-d index) but even more effective alone.
Horizontal blocking of Rooks would be reduced and unblocked Bishops and
Unicorns would always have access to 24 and 16 other squares respectively.
To prove the end of colourbinding, a Bishop or Unicorn could reach an
orthogonally adjacent square in two moves - one two cells forward and one
two cells back, but the same way sideways.
	Haremschach arises from observing that the Raumschach King and Queen can
move triagonally - an Emperor and Empress in my terminology - and there is
no combination of two plain linepieces. There could be a version in which
all linepieces are combined - two Queens in the 2d sense (Rook+Bishop),
two Duchesses (Rook+Unicorn), and two Governors (Bishop+Unicorn). Pieces
with a Rook move are clearly not colourbound but nor are Governors:
consider a Unicorn move one step forward followed by a Bishop move one
step back!