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

TheBridge41

by Hubert Lamontagne

TheBridge41 plays on the following board:
  L   l   m   r   R
 ___ ___ ___ ___ ___
|   |   |   |   |   |
| î | ï | ± | ï | î | z
|___|___|___|___|___|
|   |   |   |   |   |
| ? | i | i | i | ? | y
|___|___|___|___|___|
|   |   |   |   |   |
|   |   |   |   |   | x
|___|___|___|___|___|
|   |   |   |   |   |
|   |   |   |   |   | w
|___|___|___|___|___|
~~~~~~~~|   |~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~|   |~~~~~~~~ k (The bridge)
 ___ ___|___|___ ___
|   |   |   |   |   |
|   |   |   |   |   | d
|___|___|___|___|___|
|   |   |   |   |   |
|   |   |   |   |   | c
|___|___|___|___|___|
|   |   |   |   |   |
| ? | i | i | i | ? | b
|___|___|___|___|___|
|   |   |   |   |   |
| î | ï | ± | ï | î | a
|___|___|___|___|___|
  L   l   m   r   R

Pieces

i: Pawn
?: Knight
î: Bishop
ï: Rook
±: King

All Fide rules apply, except:

  1. No double pawn move
  2. No en-passant
  3. No castling
  4. No promotion to queen

Note that the Knights can jump over the "river".

Analysis

The "bridge" becomes a very important square.

Pawns - Must pass on the bridge to go to the other side. Gets stuck on Ld, Rd, Lw and Rw

Bishop - Can't go to the other side if the bridge is blocked. All the bishops are one the same color.

Rook - Can't go to the other side if the bridge is blocked.

King - Must pass on the bridge to go to the other side.

Knight - Jumps over the river, can always go to the other side. This makes it more powerful.

Variants

You can add these rules to the game:

Moving bridge: Players can move the bridge sideways.

Big bridge: The bridge covers from L to R, instead of only m, so there is no river, but it is still one square. See below for a diagram.

No knight on bridge: Knights can't go on the bridge.

Bishop palace: Bishops change place with rooks. They are stuck on their side. (Except if used with the changing color bishop move rule.)

King palace: The kings can't cross the bridge.

Tiny king palace: The kings can cross the bridge. They can't go to the L or R column or to the d or w rows(they are stuck in 3x3 palaces, as in Xiangqi).

Side pawn move: Pawns can move sideways on Ld, Rd, Lw and Rw, so they don't get stuck.

Changing color bishop move: Bishops on k can move to md or mw. Bishops on md or mw can move to k(the bridge).

Queen: Replace a piece by a queen.

Square Head Glinsky: Pawns take sideways.

Stalemate A: On stalemate, instead of a draw, the stalemated king wins. (when you get stalemated, you're happy aren't you? :) )

Stalemate B: On stalemate, instead of a draw, the stalemated king loses.

Perpetual check: If you can perpetual check the other player, you win.

All your base are belong to us: Replace bishops with crooked bishops. Replace knights with camels. Replace rooks by murray lions. See the piececlopedia.

Dopefish: Replace the knights with dopefish: they move like queens, but can't do non-taking moves. (they must take every move)

Big bridge variant

  L   l   m   r   R
 ___ ___ ___ ___ ___
|   |   |   |   |   |
| î | ï | ± | ï | î | z
|___|___|___|___|___|
|   |   |   |   |   |
| ? | i | i | i | ? | y
|___|___|___|___|___|
|   |   |   |   |   |
|   |   |   |   |   | x
|___|___|___|___|___|
|   |   |   |   |   |
|   |   |   |   |   | w
|___|___|___|___|___|
|                   |
|                   | k (The bridge, one big square)
|___________________|
|   |   |   |   |   |
|   |   |   |   |   | d
|___|___|___|___|___|
|   |   |   |   |   |
|   |   |   |   |   | c
|___|___|___|___|___|
|   |   |   |   |   |
| ? | i | i | i | ? | b
|___|___|___|___|___|
|   |   |   |   |   |
| î | ï | ± | ï | î | a
|___|___|___|___|___|
  L   l   m   r   R

Written by Hubert Lamontagne.
WWW page created: April 2, 2001.