by John William Brown
Millennial Chess is a variant of Centennial Chess expanded to a 12x12 board. Eight of the original pieces remain, along with two which are upgrades of the old. One entirely new piece--the Hawk--was added for novelty. If you liked Centennial Chess, you will no doubt enjoy Millennial Chess. It is a much hotter variant with a greater potential for surprise and paradox. It is not uncommon for fortunes to reverse twice in a game.
Millennial Chess uses eight of the
Centennial Chess
pieces: the King, the Rook, the
Murray Lion, the Bishop, the Rotating Spearman, the Camel, the Knight and the Pawn;
plus three new pieces which are described below.
The Guard is an orthogonal extension of the
Steward.
The Guard may move two squares
orthogonally--without capturing, or one square diagonally--only to capture. The icon for
the Guard is a man holding crossed swords. As with Stewards, Guards on adjacent
diagonals provide mutual coverage. But unlike Stewards, Guards may advance in
alternate steps without disrupting their coverage.
The Empress is a Queen that may also move as a Knight. Combining the Queen and
Knight move yields a piece that is greater than the sum of its parts. It is not uncommon
for an Empress to perform an unassisted checkmate. She was chosen to supplant the
Queen in Millennial Chess in order to shorten a rather long game. Thanks to her
assistance, this ample variant now runs about 90 minutes.
The Hawk is a Rook that may move only if a single piece obstructs the
path between its
starting and destination squares. This single intervening piece--called a
screen--must be
passed over in order for the Hawk to move or capture. Hawks may not pass over or
capture other Hawks. This rule will give rise to a number of amusing situations during the
course of play. The Hawk is taken from
Korean Chess
wherein it is called the Hpo.
The rules for Centennial Chess are the same as for FIDE Chess, except for the following amendments:
The 12x12 square Millennial Chess array is shown below.
Click here for cut-out piece patterns.
Click here to download Millennial Chess for Zillions of Games.
(adjusted for a 12x12 board)
Pawn | = 0.5 | Hawk | = 3.1 | |
Guard | = 1.5 | Murray Lion | = 3.8 | |
Knight | = 2.2 | Rook | = 5.0 | |
Camel | = 2.3 | Empress | = 13.7 | |
Rotating Spearman | = 2.6 | King | = 1.8 (valued as fighting piece) | |
Bishop | = 3.1 |
Click here for Centennial Chess.
Click here to download Millennial Chess for Zillions of Games.
John William Brown is the author of Meta-Chess
John's e-mail address is (email removed contact us for address) nolia-net.com