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Ministers Chess

Ministers Chess is a commercial variant invented in 1975 by Professor Michael Corinthios and sold by Corinthian Games, a Canadian company which has since been disolved. The web site, http://corinthiangames.com was online until 2016. A snapshot of the website is available through archive.org here.

Setup

  White:
King e1; Minister d1, f1; Rook a1, i1; Knight b1, h1; Bishop c1, g1; Pawn a2, b2, c2, d2, e2, f2, g2, h2, i2.

Black:
King e9; Minister d9, f9; Rook a9, i9; Knight b9, h9; Bishop c9, g9; Pawn a8, b8, c8, d8, e8, f8, g8, h8, i8.

Standard orthodox Chess is expanded to a 9-by-9 board in the variant which each side getting an extra Queen and Pawn, although in this game the Queens are referred to as Ministers. Dark squares are in the corners. The Ministers stand to either side of the King, making the board symmetrical, but resulting in all Bishops being on dark squares. Dr. Corinthios explained that "White squares are squares of peace and refuge."

Pieces

In this game, the Queen is called a Minister, and there are two of them, but otherwise all pieces are as in orthodox Chess.

Rules

Pawns: may make a double move from the second rank subject to capture En Passant. Promote on the last rank to Minister, Rook, Bishop, or Knight.

Castling: the King castles by sliding three squares in either direction, subject to the usual restrictions.

Notes

The inventor felt the game improved Chess in the following ways:

Of course, these points are all debatable.

Ministers Chess was awarded a Seal of Excellence by the Quebec Consumers Association in 1990.

Purchase: The commercial set is still available for sale here.

Computer Play: Ed Friedlander has a Java applet that plays Ministers Chess here.



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Author: Greg Strong. Inventor: Michael Corinthios.
Web page created: 2019-05-23. Web page last updated: 2019-05-23