12 Augmenters Chess
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This was inspired by Ralph Betza's Augmented Chess
Setup
Pieces
The main pieces
The Pawn, Bishop, Rook and King all move as they do in regular chess. Pawns cannot hold any augmenters, while Bishops, Rooks and the King hold one augmenter each.
The Corps (in place of the Knights) cannot move on its own. However, it holds 3 augmenters.
The Regent (in place of the Queen) is a stronger version of the Corps. It holds one augmenter, and two out of three of the following base pieces: Bishop, Knight, Rook.
Finally, pawns promote to Amazons, which combine the Bishop, Knight and Rook but still do not hold any augmenters.
The Augmenters
The augmenters can be split into four categories: Queen line leapers, which move a fixed number of spaces orthogonally or diagonally; half-knights, which have four of the eight Knight moves; partial rooks, which move an unlimited distance but can only go in one direction; and the grasshopper which is in a category of its own.
Queen Line Leapers
- Wazir, moves 1 space orthogonally
- Ferz, moves 1 space diagonally
- Dabbabah, moves 2 spaces orthogonally
- Alfil, moves 2 spaces diagonally
- Threeleaper, moves 3 spaces orthogonally
Half-Knight
- Narrow half knight, moves 2 spaces vertically then 1 space horizontally
- Wide half knight, moves 2 spaces horizontally then 1 space vertically
- Crab, moves forward as a Narrow Half Knight, but backwards as a Wide Half Knight
- Barc, moves forward as a Wide Half Knight, but backwards as a Narrow Half Knight
Partial Rooks
- Lance, moves any number of spaces orthogonally forwards, but can be blocked.
- Side-mover, moves any number of spaces orthogonally sideways, but can be blocked.
Grasshopper
- Grasshopper, moves in any orthogonal or diagonal direction until it hits another piece of either colour, then lands one space beyond that piece. If there is no other piece to go beyond, the Grasshopper can't move in that direction.
Rules
Setup Phase
Before the pieces start moving, each side must finish setting up their army. This happens in 5 stages:
- White chooses the two base pieces to place in their regent.
- Black chooses the two base pieces to place in their regent.
- If time control is being used, the clock starts ticking now.
- White places their 12 augmenters on their pieces
- Black places their 12 augmenters on their pieces
Now, white is ready to play the first move.
Gameplay phase
The rules are the same as those of regular Chess unless stated otherwise.
Each piece can move using its own basic capabilities or those of the augmenter(s) it has. For example: a Rook with a Ferz as its augmenter would be able to move any distance orthogonally or 1 space diagonally; and a corps with the Wazir, Dabbabah and Threeleaper would be able to move up to three spaces orthogonally, jumping over any pieces in its way.
Because the two copies of the same piece now move differently, they should be notated differently. How the moves are notated is not important as long as it is unambiguous to all players and arbiters, though a notation system should be decided in advance. Two possible piece notation systems are:
- Each piece is represented using the capital letter corresponding to the file it started on. For example, the Kingside Rook has the letter H, and the Queenside Bishop retains the letter B. Just make sure you're able to deal with multiple promoted pawns!
- Having a piece's notation represent it's abilities. For example, RA for a Rook augmented by the Alfil.
The King can use his augmenter to get out of check, and a King with a Partial Rook augmenter can move through check as long as his destination is safe. However, all the usual restrictions on castling (except the requirement to only use one hand, see below) still apply.
If the Kings have different augmenters, they can use those augmenters to check each-other.
If a King is using the Dabbabah or the Side-Mover as an augmenter, the player must use both hands to castle by touching the King and Rook at the same time. This is to prevent ambiguity between Kg1 and O-O. If a player using both hands to castle attempts to castle illegally, they may move either the King or the Rook to comply with the touch-move rule. Players may castle with both hands even if they aren't using an augmenter that forces them to.
Upon reaching the opponent's back rank, Pawns must promote to Amazons; they cannot choose to underpromote.
Notes
Piece values
- Corps: 5 pawns
- Bishop: 5 pawns
- Rook: 7 pawns
- Regent: 10 pawns
- Amazon: 11.5 pawns
Notice that the Regent is worth exactly 2 minor pieces.
Setup strategies
It is ill advised to use an augmenter to move to squares the piece can already move to with its basic capabilities. For example, Rook+Wazir and Rook+Lance gain nothing from their augmenters. While Rook+Dabbabah is not completely useless because of its ability to jump, there are better augmenters for the Rook.
Since the King must be kept safe at all times, a long-range augmenter is helpful to get out of danger quickly.
Make sure all your pieces can get to anywhere on the board! This isn't a problem for the Rooks, King or Regent but it does cripple some combinations such as Bishop+Dabbabah and Narrow Half Knight+Alfil+Dabbabah.
It's usually best if the Corps and Bishop on the side you plan on castling to can jump over the pawns in front of them. This can allow casting to happen quickly in a pinch.
As White must set up their pieces first, Black can react to White's setup and try to counter any weaknesses.
Here is a sensible setup if you want to get started!
- A: Rook+Alfil
- B: Lance+Side-Mover+Barc
- C: Bishop+Wazir
- D: Rook+Bishop+Grasshopper
- E: King+Threeleaper
- F: Bishop+Crab
- G: Knight(Narrow+Wide)+Dabbabah
- H: Rook+Ferz
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By Andrew L Smith.
Last revised by Andrew L Smith.
Web page created: 2021-09-21. Web page last updated: 2021-10-20