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Yalta. A three player chess variant. (Cells: 96) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
Sam wrote on Fri, Jun 28, 2002 12:01 AM UTC:
You copied a chinese chess variant and took it and changed it to fit
regular chess.  Only not copying it hurts chinese chess you are giving
yourself credit for something you didn't think up of.

Sam = Stupid! wrote on Tue, Oct 29, 2002 02:31 AM UTC:
Sam are you stupid! He said he found it in a book!

Anonymous wrote on Sun, Dec 8, 2002 03:35 AM UTC:
I got a similar chess set, nice wood board and pieces, made in Poland. The rules that came with the set were slightly different. Red starts, and chooses which side the queens are placed on. The first to checkmate either of the other two players wins and the game is over. The other two both lose. Since you not only have to defend your own king, but stop either of the other players from checmating each other, I would stay away from the beers.

Jianiyng Ji wrote on Sat, Dec 14, 2002 10:14 PM UTC:
The last comment is quite interesting. Would probably make a great
suggestion for rule 0 for 3 player games. It prevents that great bane of
games for greater than 2 players, especially 3 players, 2 against 1
senario.

Robert Shimmin wrote on Sat, Dec 14, 2002 10:41 PM UTC:
I don't think the 2-vs-1 scenario is all that big of a problem in 3-player
games, since if one player begins to pull ahead, it only becomes natural
for the other two to ally against the leader.

One problem in 3-player strategy games I've seldom seen solved though is
the kingmaker problem.  Suppose one player is losing hopelessly, but is
either able to hurt one of the other players enough on the way out to give
the other one the game, or is able to determine the winner more directly
(by deciding whose mating trap to walk his king into...).  Then the winner
ends up being decided not by who played better, but by whom the _loser_
was feeling better disposed towards.

Bryan wrote on Mon, Feb 3, 2003 01:58 AM UTC:
Where can you get one of these chess boards? and is it called Yalta by everyone?

Phil Brady wrote on Tue, Feb 4, 2003 01:48 PM UTC:
You can find a PDF with a piece of the board at

http://www.ee0r.com/tri-chess/

(Look for the section titled 'What You Need'.)

The page is about a chess-like game using Icehouse pieces, and so the
board isn't colored quite right, but it's still useable. Be sure to look
at the very bottom--there's an interesting way of making a five-player
board with the PDF.

Serguei wrote on Wed, Sep 3, 2003 11:19 AM UTC:Good ★★★★
This game called Yalta like city in Crimea (Ukraina) or what?

John Ayer wrote on Thu, Sep 4, 2003 03:04 AM UTC:
I suppose the name refers to the meeting of Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin in Yalta during World War II.

Gerben Dirksen wrote on Thu, Sep 4, 2003 03:24 PM UTC:Excellent ★★★★★
Having played a lot of this game, I have some rule clarifications the way
we play them.

1) Knights. Move diagonal + straight or straight + diagonal, but do not
land on a square touching the square they started from. From c4 there are
9 possible moves (the usual 8 on the red-green board + blue d4), from d4
there are 10 (the usual 8 on the red-green board and blue c4 & d3). 

2) The king is the only piece able to move to the square of opposite
colour in the center (red d4 to blue e4). 

3) Tournament scoring: Whenever a player is checkmated this ends the
game.
If he is in check by one player, score 2 - 1 - 0, if he is in check by
both opponents, score 3/2 - 3/2 - 0. If a draw is reached, score 1 - 1 -
1.

Charles Gilman wrote on Mon, Dec 8, 2003 05:57 PM UTC:Excellent ★★★★★
I last saw this game some 20 years ago, and may even have played it myself. There was also a 4-player version but this is even better as every pair of players is equally opposed to each other.

Kevin Gillan wrote on Thu, Nov 18, 2004 03:15 PM UTC:Excellent ★★★★★
Fun game, for those who want an easy to print board you can download a 4 x
A4 pdf from here:
http://www.shef.ac.uk/kevingillan/journal.htm

cheers!

Cees Kleinveld wrote on Sat, May 27, 2006 12:56 PM UTC:Excellent ★★★★★
I discovered this beautiful game somewhere on a marketplace in Budapest. You can still buy it(2006)! It is a real challenge to play the game since there are all unexpected moves and possibilities. Moves of the bishop split up as they go though the center. I would like to have the original rules how to play the game properly. We play the game until two players are checkmated. We leave the pieces of the first loser on the board. Since they have no king, they have no effect. You can capture them if you like.

Anonymous wrote on Thu, May 8, 2008 12:44 AM UTC:Good ★★★★
I've just started playing this game and it is a hoot. One decision we came
to quickly is to dispense with the whole notion of check and check mate.
They don't exist. A player loses when his/her king is captured. Why?
Suppose player1 moves a piece which exposes player3's king to a piece of
player2's. Now it's player2's move. Can he take the king? Of course he
can and thus ends the game for player3. Not allowing player2 to capture
the king would be silly. Try this. I'm in check, but another player is
going to intervene before my king can be captured. Do I have to move out
of check? Again only one answer makes logical sense. Of course I really
have to trust the alliance to let my king wave in the wind like that.
There are a thousand variations on this, but they all boil down to the
same thing: you take the king or you don't take the king; there is no
check.

With the exception of not being allowed to castle through check,
everything else about it can be explained as mere convention. Checkmate is
nothing more than the king being captured on the next turn. Check is
nothing more than warning the other person that this is about to happen. I
think the game of chess would work perfectly fine if the conventions of
check and checkmate had never become common.

[email protected] wrote on Sat, May 23, 2009 08:12 PM UTC:Excellent ★★★★★
i play yalta with friends who are very good chess players and we're lot of fun and great pleasure to do it

this game is really different than classical chess but very interresting cause of many combinations and psychologic job

during the game we speak very much for mental intoxication

rules are ending amazing cases and sometimes we scratch our heads

the most important thing the timing of actions when you're checked by the first,the second is free to attack any piece cause you should face to the check before but sometimes he must defend you to avoid mate,your worst ennemy for the king is always the first and the second is the queen's killer

anyway take care of knights (crazy displacements near the center) thirty five years ago i've drawn many plates of three player's chess plates before it was really created and sold and the more useful was more rounded in the center(best global viewing of lines and columns) prefer hex plates than square

it is at last an excellent game ,try it and you'll be addict (or crazy;-)

ps sorry for my poor english cause i'am old french player


[email protected] wrote on Sat, May 23, 2009 08:33 PM UTC:Excellent ★★★★★
here is another kind of plate maybe better for some people it's up to you (so you can make it yourself according your favorite ways) mine is nearly the same as Daniel Lindstrvm's model

http://www.cie-maxi-jeux.com/animations-prestations/catalogue-jeux/jeux-en-bois-geants/jeux-reflexion-strategie/jeu-d-echecs-a-3---yalta.html

ps for moderate : i'am not a commercial and have no interrests of any kind in this sociéty it's just for example


Anonymous wrote on Mon, Mar 29, 2010 04:51 PM UTC:Excellent ★★★★★
I think, any game with symmetric initial setup can be played on such boards. Also it's possible to make boards not only for 3 players game, but for any number of player (with more squares: another 1 player - another 32 squares).

Charles Gilman wrote on Wed, Mar 31, 2010 06:38 AM UTC:
Regarding variants with even numbers of both ranks and files I agree with the previous comment. Odd numbers of either are slightly more complex. Nine-file variant can however be adapted for 4 players with each facing each across 3 files, as in my Flyover Shogi and Flyover Xiang Qi.

Claudio Martins Jaguaribe wrote on Thu, Jul 8, 2010 07:37 PM UTC:
I've been thinking, it's problably crazy, but if we make a 9x10 board we could make a FIDE x Shogi x Xiang Qi. The most significant change would be another queen to FIDE. Shogi wouls promote on any three last ranks and Xiang Qi would be the same.

Hugs.

Daniil Frolov wrote on Fri, Jul 9, 2010 08:46 AM UTC:
I was thinking of posting similar game, but instead second queen, FIDE had cardinal (B+N) and pawn may promote to marshal (R+N) and camel ((1,3) leaper). Plus, as Xiang-qi looks as weakest player, it have additional two pieces: it moves as camel-mao (two squares orthogonally, when diagonally outwards) on home territorry, but it moves as rook on FIDE and shogi territrries (based on additional pieces from original 3-players XQ variants). When shogi captures pieces of other teams, it can be dropped, and it transforms into corresponding shogi piece (cannon and marshal transforms into shogi rooks, cardinals and vaos (see below) transforms into shogi bishops, camels and XQ additional pieces transforms into piece, Charles Gilman calls 'hump' - leaps 3 forward and 1 sideways on same move, promotes to gold general). Victory is achivied by capturing both hostile kings. XQ king may capture other kings either by rook rifle-capture, or move like rook to it's square (when cannot go to palace again. advisors can move out of palace and elepants cross river when, but not return back). All pieces conquered player had, now changes sides and transforms into corresponding piece (cardinals and shogi bishops transforms into vaos, diagonal cannons). Promoted shogi pieces become unpromoted, but FIDE pawns don't (and they also don't demote when captured by shogis, i forgot to say it). Turn order: Xiang-qi-Shogi-FIDE. In beggining, XQ cannons can capture FIDE knight or shogi bishop (second is not recommended, it will give advantge to shogi).
I also have team variant of this (it's not complete, i still have to think about it): 2 players are team, but third player have strong king: FIDE chess - maharaja (R+N+B), XQ - yitong (R+XQ horse+cannon), Shogi - lion (see description of chu shogi or piececlopedia).
What do you think about it?

Claudio Martins Jaguaribe wrote on Fri, Jul 9, 2010 11:32 PM UTC:
Its very different from my original idea, but go for it!

Do it!

Its very interesting.

Hugs.

Charles Gilman wrote on Sat, Jul 10, 2010 06:05 AM UTC:
I too had a similar idea but never finalised the rules enough to post it. My idea was four ranks on the FIDE side, five each on the Shogi and XQ, FIDE facing each of the other two on four files, and Shogi facing XQ on five files. XQ would certainly move first.

Anonymous wrote on Mon, Jul 12, 2010 05:06 PM UTC:
The board game Yalta was created shortly after the 1945 conference and
supposedly gave a better feel for how the conference went than any of the
commentaries on the meeting.  The treating of millions of lives as though
they were pawns on a chess board, plus the continually changing sides ...
(Gratuitous political comment deleted - Editor.)

Jose Carrillo wrote on Tue, Aug 24, 2010 02:12 AM UTC:


A different looking Yalta board from the French website charlestillou posted about below.

Vytron wrote on Wed, Dec 1, 2010 05:24 PM UTC:Excellent ★★★★★
A correspondence Yalta game is being played at Rybka Rorum, we're playing with the rule 'the first player to checkmate another player wins'.

Yalta 3 Players Chess: TheHug Vs. tomski1981 Vs. Vytron

Ongoing Yalta game


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