Check out Symmetric Chess, our featured variant for March, 2024.

This page is written by the game's inventor, Lev Grigoriev. This game is a favorite of its inventor.

Lighthouse

How to play something very unusual with only normal chess set? Easily!

Setup

Board with 8 ranks and just 4 files. Simply, it’s compacted chessboard.
4 Pawns per side are placed on 2nd (White) and 7th (Black) ranks. Then white pieces on 1st rank are placed from left to right relative to White’s sight: Bishop, Knight, King, Rook; on 8th row, Black has mirrored setup. Other pieces are put in reserve.

Pieces

They move as in FIDE Chess, except for following differences.

Rules

They are quite simple. Game goes as in Chess, but, when you capture opposite piece, you put it in reserve box aside from the board, change it to similar piece of another color from this box & put latter in your hand (basically, piece is now your).
You can drop your piece from hand to any desired free square on the board instead of moving. However, Pawns can’t be placed on 1st or 8th ranks (where non-Pawns start).

When Pawn reaches the last rank, it becomes the Queen. There can be just one Queen per side, so if Queen is already placed, other Pawns won't be allowed to go to the last rank (though this won't stop them from checking the King which stands on it). If Queen is captured, it demotes back to Pawn.

Other rules are as in Chess. To win, checkmate the opposite King. Draw occurs by 15 moves without capture (unlike Chess), 3-fold repetition of position (including pieces in hands), stalemate (if it’s possible here), etc.



This 'user submitted' page is a collaboration between the posting user and the Chess Variant Pages. Registered contributors to the Chess Variant Pages have the ability to post their own works, subject to review and editing by the Chess Variant Pages Editorial Staff.


By Lev Grigoriev.

Last revised by Diceroller is Fire.


Web page created: 2024-01-23. Web page last updated: 2024-01-23