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

This page is written by the game's inventor, Peter Hatch.

The Humans

The Humans are designed to be the "normal" army, the standard to which the others are compared. Therefore, the pieces and setup are exactly as in Christian Freeling's Grand Chess, except that there is no en passant, as in Kevin Scanlon's Grander Chess, and Pawns do not have to promote on reaching the last rank.

Starting Setup

The starting setup for black is the mirror image of that for white.

    +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
  3 | P | P | P | P | P | P | P | P | P | P |
    +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
  2 |   | N | B | Q | K | M | C | B | N |   |
    +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
  1 | R |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   | R |
    +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
      a   b   c   d   e   f   g   h   i   j

The Pieces

Each piece is listed with its abbreviation in parentheses after its name, followed by the notation for its move in Ralph Betza's notation in brackets, if its move can be expressed in that notation.

Pawn (P) [mfFcfW]

The Pawn is unchanged except there is no en passant and promotion is different. It may promote when it reaches the eighth, ninth, or tenth rank. When it promotes it is replaced by any non-pawn piece of yours that has been captured.

Rook (R) [R]

The Rook is unchanged.

Knight (N) [N]

The Knight is unchanged.

Bishop (B) [B]

The Bishop is unchanged.

Cardinal (C) [NB]

The Cardinal has the combined moves of a Knight and a Bishop.

Queen (Q) [Q]

The Queen is unchanged.

Marshall (M) [NR]

The Marshall has the combined moves of a Rook and a Knight.

King (K) [K]

The King is unchanged except that it can not castle.


Written by Peter Hatch.
WWW page created: November 26, 2000.