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

This page is written by the game's inventor, Francois Tremblay.

Chess in the Fast Lane


by Francois Tremblay, November 2000

INTRODUCTION
This variant was made for the "design a 41-squares variant" contest. My first inspiration was the "Edge Chess" variant, which I thought was an incredible concept. However, I thought some people would prefer to play a simplified version. Since this concept fits perfectly with the "41-squares" premise, here is "Chess in the Fast Lane".
NOTE : Since, for the purpose of the "41-squares" contest, a square is defined as "cell that can contain a piece", and only lanes or non-grouped squares can contain pieces, this variant has only 41 such squares (even if it is played on a normal board).


Starting positions in Chess in the Fast Lane Normal rules apply, except for the following exceptions.

The board is composed of the usual array of squares, but most squares are grouped in lanes, as illustrated on the starting position image (a lane is represented by a black rectangle). Both are important, for a reason which will soon become apparent.

Movement rules :

Other rules :

If you play a game, please send me an email at (email removed contact us for address) patico.ca to tell me how it went.

ZRF-file

Here is a Zillions of Games implementation of Chess in the Fast Lane fastlane.zip. This ZRF-file has been made by Peter Aronson.
Written by Francois Tremblay.
WWW page created: November 2, 2000. Last modified: November 6, 2000.