Beast Chess
The idea for Beast Chess came when I noticed how many fairy chess pieces were named for animals. I just thought, why not fill the whole game with them?
After a bit of research, I determined that loading the board with beast-type fairy pieces wasn't feasable; the King and Pawns still needed to behave as in the standard game; and if the King did, then the Queen probably should as well. The Bishop, Knight, and Rook were fair game, though.
Setup
Beast Chess can be played with the standard pieces, with a set of all beast-like pieces, or a mixture. The setup board here, and any other diagrams, assume the latter, treating each piece as its move style.
This setup simply replaces the Bishops with Rhinos, Knights with Giraffes, and Rooks with Ostriches.
If you want to play with all animal figures, use a lion for the King, a lioness (or similar figure) for the Queen, and squirrels for Pawns. (Or just the first two, and let Pawns be Pawns.)
Pieces
The three new pieces are:
Rhino (Bishop)
The Rhino here isn't the one described on the Piececlopedia Rhino page; rather, it's used as one of the alternate names for the Manticore: it moves one square orthogonally, and then continues outward diagonally like a Bishop.
Camel (Knight)
As usual for a Camel, this piece has an "extended Knight" move, leaping 4 squares orthogonally followed by a right-angle turn and going one more square (a 3,1 move).
Ostrich (Rook)
The Ostrich leaps two spaces diagonally, and then may continue outward like a Rook.
Rules
Other than the replacement of pieces described above, all standard rules of Chess are observed.
This 'user submitted' page is a collaboration between the posting user and the Chess Variant Pages. Registered contributors to the Chess Variant Pages have the ability to post their own works, subject to review and editing by the Chess Variant Pages Editorial Staff.
By Bob Greenwade.
Last revised by Bob Greenwade.
Web page created: 2023-06-10. Web page last updated: 2023-08-13