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

MISSOUM 8x8 SPIDER WEB SPIRAL CHESS

I have designed the following 8x8 Spider Web Spiral Chess using the architecture of the spider.

The chessboard is an 8x8 Spider Web Spiral which comprises both inner and outer spirals (see illustration below). The inner spiral comprises the fundamental central cells (zones between the radius and the spiral curve which are the equivalent of the central squares of the usual 8x8 square chess). The center of the inner spiral is used as a spider dwelling and a point of observation. The initial arrangement of pieces is illustrated below, where R=Rook, N=Knight, B=Bishop, Q=Queen, K=King and P=Pawn. The files are identified by the coordinates (x,y) where x= a,b,c,d,e,f,g and y=1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8.

The spider uses two types of threads silk he secretes from his abdomen: one is sticky silk for capturing the prey and one is dry for its movement along the web spiral. The central part of web spiral is made of dry silk. He uses it as both a dwelling and a point of observation. From the center O of the web spiral, and with the small hooks of his feet, the spider continuously stretches the radiuses of the web spiral for detecting the type and size of a trapped insect. Once a prey is trapped he quickly moves along the dry radius strands towards the prey, envelops her with a pack of threads and injects her with his venomous poison. The eight small eyes of the spider play no role in the detection of the location of the prey. But the sense of touch in his hooks is very developed. The process of building his web spiral is as follows: (1) he draws a bridge line (XY). Then from the middle point O of the line (XY), he lets himself fall towards the ground. So the first three radiuses of the web spiral are built. Then he continues drawing the spiral using this process.


Written by A. MISSOUM. Edited by David Howe.
WWW page created: June 30, 1997.