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This page is written by the game's inventor, Kuyan Judith.

Classic Average

Recently I have been thinking of various ways to combine the 3 classic chesses. This game uses the method: take as many things 2 have in common as possible. It is not playtested.

Setup

The game can be played with Shogi equipment and has Shogi's opening setup, except that it might be played with either rotational or reflective symetry (9*9 board: width of Shogi and Xiangqi, average length, square like Shogi and Chess, promotion zone between Chess's back row and Xiangqi's back half). The pieces are different, as described below. Only the footsoldiers promote, and they promote in the Shogi promotion zone as in Shogi.

Pieces

The royal general is the royal piece and moves as the king in Chess (without castling). They start in the royal and jewel general's starting spaces, e1 and e9.

The authorities start in the gold generals' starting spaces, d1, f1, d9 and f9. They move like the royal general but are not royal (all the spaces two or more pieces out of the queen, goldgeneral and advisor could move to).

The advisors start in the starting spaces of the silver generals, c1, g1, c9 and g9. They can move one space diagonally or slide two spaces diagonally (all the spaces two or more out of the bishop, silver general and elephant could move to).

The horses start on the starting spaces of the honourable horses: b1, h1, b9 and h9. They move like the knight in chess (like the knight and honourable horse, they leap. They can move to the same spaces as the knight or the horse on an otherwise empty board)

The chariots start on the starting spaces of the fragrant chariots: a1, i1, a9 and i9. They move like the rook ion chess or the chariot in Xiangqi.

The machines start in the starting spaces of the angle movers and flying chariots. They move as rooks but capture as chess pawns.

The footsoldiers are the same as in shogi. Even their promoted move is the same as that of the shogi reach-for-gold. They start in the same spaces. The only difference is that they cannot be dropped.

Rules

The aim is to checkmate or stalemate the opponent's royal general. Pieces move and capture as in all classical chesses. There are no drops.

Notes

The machine was the piece which was the most trouble designing: They had to be the same as each other but different from the chariots so there would be an average number of piece types. Were I to take the average of the cannon, angle mover and flying chariot, they could not have taken ever, so I added the pawn.


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By Kuyan Judith.
Web page created: 2008-06-07. Web page last updated: 2008-06-07