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

ZigZag Madness

ZigZag Madness is a 10x10 board chess variant that features 2 new exotic pieces: the ZigZag Bishop and the ZigZag Rook, both of which are crooked dual path sliders. (or 2-path Bent Riders in more accurate CV terminology)

The ZigZag Bishop controls all adjacent diagonals except adjacent squares and any square that is a knight's move away.
Similarly, the ZigZag Rook controls adjacent files and ranks with the same caveat.

The game also uses augmented knights instead of regular knights and 5 additional pawns (Ninja Pawns) that can be dropped during play.

Otherwise, the rules are exactly as in orthodox chess except for: Flexible castling (King can castle by moving 1, 2 or 3 (or 4 on Q-side) spaces towards rook, modified and faster movement of the standard pawns and associated extended en-passant rules.

Setup

The board is set up as follows for the white side (black side will mirror this):

Rook on a1
Wazir Knight on b1
Bishop on c1
ZigZag Bishop on d1
Queen on e1
King on f1
ZigZag Rook on g1
Bishop on h1
Ferz Knight on i1
Rook on j1
10 pawns from a2 to j2.

Note that the lower right square is white, and that kings occupy the same color square.

5 Ninja pawns to be dropped one per turn into empty space from a2-j2

Pieces

The ZigZag Bishop
Moveset of ZigZag bishop
    The ZigZag Bishop slides to the green squares by taking either:
  • 1 orthogonal step followed by 2 or more diagonally outward steps
  • OR
  • 2 or more diagonal steps followed by 1 orthogonally outward step.

Both paths must be blocked for it not to be able to make it to the destination square.

The pawn at e4 blocks one path to g6 and h7.
The e4 pawn and the knight at e3 block both paths to g2 and h1 (the yellow squares).
Ths ZigZag Bishop cannot jump and captures by replacement only.


The ZigZag Rook
Moveset of ZigZag Rook
    The ZigZag Rook slides to the green squares by taking either:
  • 1 diagonal step followed by 2 or more orthogonally outward steps
  • OR
  • 2 or more orthogonal steps followed by 1 diagonally outward step.

Both paths must be blocked for it not to be able to make it to the destination square.

The pawn at e4 blocks one path to g5 and h5
The e4 pawn and the knight at e3 blocks both paths to g3 and h3 (the yellow squares).

Ths ZigZag Rook cannot jump and captures by replacement only.


The Standard Pawn Moves exactly as in standard chess except:
The pawn can move from its original position either 1, 2 or 3 vacant squares forward.
If it previously moved only 1 space originally or captured from original position, it can move forward two spaces towards the center.
En-passant is logically applied to meet these changes.
From the middle (rank 5 for white, rank 6 for black), it can step only 1 space forward into the upper half of board, but from thereafter it can go one or two vacant spaces forward.
For example, a pawn can start at e2 push forward to e5 then make one step to e6 then go e8, and promote at e10 in 4 moves!
Note that if a pawn makes the two step pawn move and bypasses an enemy pawn, it can be captured en-passant.

The Ninja Pawnwhite ninja pawn black ninja pawn

Movement:
The ninja pawn can always move 1 square up or 1 square sideways to an empty square regardless of where it is situated on the board.

When the pawn is situated in the lower half of the board (for White, rank 1-5 and for black 10-6), it can move forward multiple vacant squares (1-3 squares) to reach the middle of the board (rank 5 for White or rank 6 for Black). This move can be done at any time regardless of how many times the pawn has moved.
Thus White can on each turn move from e2-e3, e3-d3 and d3-d5.

From the middle exactly, (rank 5 for white, rank 6 for black), the ninja pawn can move only 1 square forward, but thereafter as soon as it enters enemy territory (the upper half of the board: White rank 6-10, and for black rank 5 - 1), the pawn can go forward either 1 OR 2 empty spaces.

Capture:
Like the standard pawn it can capture one square diagonally up, regardless of which half of the board it is on.
When the ninja pawn is on the top half of board (White rank 6 +, Black rank 5-) , it can also capture one square horizontally.

There is no en passant. It cannot capture another pawn or ninja pawn en passant nor can any other pawn capture it this way.

Promotion: The ninja pawn promotes on the last row (rank 10 for white, rank 1 for black), to any piece. Promotion to a piece is mandatory so it would cease to be a pawn in the last row.
Note that like the standard pawn, it can reach the promotion square from its start position in a minimum of 4 moves!

Dropping: 5 Ninja Pawns can be dropped (1 per turn) into an empty space on the 2nd rank by either side during the course of play. The Ninja Pawn can be optionally pushed forward (1-multiple spaces) towards the middle during the same turn.
It cannot make a capture on the same turn as the drop.

The Ferz-Knight - moves like a knight or makes one step diagonally.

The Wazir-Knight - moves like a knight or makes one step orthogonally.

Rules

Except for the movement of the new pieces and the standard pawns, the rules are exactly as in orthodox chess except for: Flexible castling
The King has the option to castle by moving 1, 2 or 3 (or 4 on Q-side) spaces towards rook.

Notes

A tactical opening example
1. d2-d5 d9-d6
2. c1-g5 i10-h8?! //ignoring the threat to the pawn
3. g5-c9 (bxp) //capturing the pawn
3 .. d10-a6! //forking the bishop and the queen!
Can you spot White's best move?
4. d1-a5! //All is not lost! White might get away with the pawn!
The game might proceeed with
4... ~p-d9 //Black drops a ninja pawn to block the attack.
5. c9-b10 (bxwn)
and White seems to have gained a pawn.

ZigZag Madness is my last chess variant using this board size, and is closely related to the games: Asylum Redux and Octopus Chess.



Note: The ZigZag Bishop is not to be confused with the Boyscout which has a radically different moveset and which is occasionally referenced with the same name.

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By Charles Daniel.
Web page created: 2008-11-19. Web page last updated: 2008-11-19