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Chess Problems on Rubik's Cube[Subject Thread] [Add Response]
Daniil Frolov wrote on Mon, May 19, 2014 02:36 PM UTC:
An interesting idea came in my mind... Maybe, something alike has already
existed, but i did not see such things.

Consider Rubik's Cube (preferably, of non-standart size - at least 4x4x4),
on wich each square, instead being colored in one of six colors, depicts
certain chess piece of certain side (black or white), or empty. And the
goal of this puzzle is to make a chess problem, solvable for white, on each
of six sides (positions of different sides don't interact, and each side
is a separate board). Of course, each side must contain one black king and
one white king. Thereafter, on the same cube, player can try to reach
opposite goal - make six problems, solvable for black.

As variation, it's not necessary to make the cube's square corresponding
to chess playing space. Instead, it can can correspond to 2x2 area. In this
case, standart 3x3x3 size is enough, as it makes 6x6 boards on each side.

George Duke wrote on Tue, May 20, 2014 03:44 PM UTC:
Of course it's better to have correspondence to normal Chess playing
space.  There is readable 6x6 board on the surface.  Instead, how to
generate visualizable 8x8 64 squares equitably from surface having 54
squares? Or map 54 -> 64 squares the best way? 

Fortunately, the Rubik's surface it's easy, given logic of the geometry. 
Think perimetres.

(1) Open and flatten the surface of 6 faces each given Rubik's possibility
into natural "Cross," lengthwise 9x3 with adjacent 3x3 above and 3x6
below.  Topological equivalence keeps with pre-existing Rubik's state
complete exterior.  There is only one natural flattening once top-side
accepted.

(2) The wanted commonplace 8x8 has 4 decreasing perimetres inwardly: 28,
20, 12 and 4 (the ballied central four). 

(3) The Rubik's variant chessboard 2-d generated in '1' above has two
perimetres: 38 outside and 16 inside by inspection.  

(4) Map by algorithm, pre-determined as to starting points, first, the 38
of given Rubik's to 28 exterior of 8x8.  That leaves perfect '10' for
the 8x8 second perimetre (of 20). Use it again, the 10, that is use the
 sub-leg of 10 from Rubik's exterior twice to fill in the 8x8 second
perimetre.  Finally, the 16 of "Rubik's inside" and 16 of "64-square
inside" happen numerically to match exactly, to complete the map.  

(5) So any state of (3x3x3) Rubik's 5 x 10^26 possibilities, or so by
differing reckonings, gives one and only one potential Chessboard
piece-arranged.  For piece set-ups,  no colours having been used yet, 
Frolov's colouring represents the 6 Chess pieces for problems.  Only small
fraction will be useful and fulfill Chess problem with Solution. By
Frolov's method, just looking at any given classical Rubik's permutation, six-coloured as each one is,
should immediately bring to anyone's mind a unique Orthodox Chess board position too -- to solve or not.   

///  Converse could be challenging. There are far, far more Chess positions than Rubik's possibilities.  So most cannot uniquely transform to a Rubik's state.  Yet prove or show that some even very conveniently-chosen Chess position(s) thus is not representational accurately by "a Rubik's."

Charles Gilman wrote on Thu, May 22, 2014 05:53 AM UTC:
There are certainly some interesting ideas in there. Perhaps there should be a rule that turning the cube, as a special move, should have certain restrictions. One might follow the example of Castling and insist that (1) a rotation cannot be used to escape Check and (2) a 180° rotation should be made in such a way that the intermediate position does not put the mover in Check. It would also be useful to define exactly what kind of turn is allowed. In the case of a 4x4x4, do you rotate the third plane relative all three others, or the third and fourth relative to the first and second ones?

One slight distraction in this thread was George Duke's "perimetre". At first I thought that it might be a typo, but it was repeated. Then I wondered if it was a typo of mine that was being emulated by others, but I searched my master documents for it and it was not there. The correct spelling is perimeter in British, as well as North American, English. If anyone is interested I can go into more detail.


George Duke wrote on Thu, May 22, 2014 04:05 PM UTC:
Naturally there is a Perimeter Chess (fr. perimetre),
http://chessvariants.org/other.dir/modest-piece.html -- the old cliche name any word and a CV already exists.  Another one: Dr. Friedlander has applet Crush Chess, in which every ten moves the perimeter disappears, so you better mate before Move 20 or the only pieces left are within the 4x4.

http://www.chessvariants.org/index/msdisplay.php?itemid=MScentralrotatio.  Do any 3d CVs rotate portion of board?

Also there is 6-colour Chess: http://www.chessvariants.org/index/msdisplay.php?itemid=MPchessontherain. It is interesting to preserve standard Rubik's 6 colours, instead of Frolov's main idea, as each representing one of rnbkqp; it requires rule discarding excess pieces per side.

This puzzle was for sale: http://www.chessvariants.org/solitaire.dir/checkmate.html.

Betza's 2003 Pied Color seems Rubik-like somehow: http://www.chessvariants.org/boardrules.dir/piedchess.html.

Charles Gilman wrote on Sat, May 24, 2014 06:14 AM UTC:
Ah, mais oui, l'usage français! Perhaps we ought to refer to George Duke as Georges Duc from now on! No, only joking.

The point on colouring is an interesting one - although I could not see any actual rules about what the square colours signify in Chess on the Rainbow. Of course most colourings would eventually render the game something like Pied Chess in appearance, if not necessarily in rules. One exception would be making every face the same standard odd-side board - making the choices of cube 3x3x3, 5x5x5, 7x7x7 et cetera.

Central Rotation Chess seems a necglected game. An anticlockwise version would be very different due to King/Queen assymetry, and might be worth considering as a subvariant.


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