Colorful Osmosis Chess
Colorful Osmosis Chess uses four basic piece types (plus Kings and Pawns). Two basic pieces are colorbound and two are colorswitching. Of the colorbound pieces, one is a slider and the other is a leaper; likewise for the colorswitching pieces. Basic pieces can create compond pieces by capturing enemy basic pieces, in some games this process is called absorbtion, here I use the synonym osmosis.
Setup
From left to right on the first rank are White's Harvestman, Knight, Camel, Bishop, King, Camel, Bishop, Knight, and Harvestman. On the second rank are nine Pawns, Black's army is placed in mirror symmetric positions on the eighth and ninth ranks. Because of the limitations of the Diagram Designer, the Harvestman is represented as the Rook icon but it has a different move.
Pieces
- King moves as an FIDE King but cannot castle.
- Pawn moves as an FIDE Pawn including en passant. Pawns promote on the enemy Pawn line to any basic or compound piece.
Basic Pieces
- Bishop moves as an FIDE Bishop. The colorbound slider.
- Knight moves as an FIDE Knight. The colorswitching leaper.
- Camel moves two squares straight a one square diagonally or vice versa. The colorbound leaper.
- Harvestman moves one square straight then continues as a Crooked Bishop (https://www.chessvariants.com/piececlopedia.dir/crookedbishop.html). The colorswitching slider.
Compound Pieces
- Cardinal moves as a Bishop or a Kinght.
- Caliph moves as a Bishop or a Camel.
- Evangelist moves as a Bishop or a Harvestman.
- Gnu moves as a Knight or a Camel.
- Battlemaster moves as a Knight or a Harvestman.
- Imam moves as a Camel or a Harvestman.
Rules
The usual FIDE checkmate, stalemate, triple repetition and fifty-move rules apply. In addition, whenever a basic piece captures an enemy basic piece with a different move, a new piece belonging to the capturing player is created on the capture square according to the following list:
- Bishop + Knight = Cardinal
- Bishop + Camel = Caliph
- Bishop + Harvestman = Evangelist
- Knight + Camel = Gnu
- Knight + Harvestman = Battlemaster
- Camel + Harvestman = Imam
Note that these combinations are commutative, so a Bishop capturing a Knight or a Knight capturing a Bishop both result in the creation of a Cardinal, for example. This process is called osmosis.
Notes
Colorful Osmosis Chess began as an effort to use both colorbound and colorswiching sliders and leapers. Three of them are Bishop, Kinght, and Camel. For the fourth basic piece I used Jörg Knappen's Harvestman from his Seenschach. Mine is the second game using this piece to the best of my knowlege. The Harvestman is an interest piece: it moves in a general Rook-like direction with more mobility than a Rook but lacks the "can-mate" property, thus being technically a minor piece, though its strength is nearer to a Rook's than a Bishop's. The osmosis rules are adapted from the assimilation rules of Fergus Duniho's Assimilation Chess with the following changes:
- Kings do not participate in osmosis.
- Compound pieces do not split.
The abscence of castling and Pawn promotion before the last rank are reminiscent of Shogi.
The only King+X vs. King engame which can force mate is when X is a Cardinal. For King+X+Y vs. King endgames where X and Y are Harvestmen or Harvestman comppounds, forcing mate is easy; when X and Y are two Knights it is impossble. Where X and Y are Bishop and Knght or two Bishops on opposite colorsit should be as possible to farce mate as on an 8x8 board. Any comination of colorbound piecess on the same color cannot force mate.Other combination are unknown, endgame studies are needed.
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 Michael Nelson.
Last revised by Michael Nelson.
Web page created: 2023-10-27. Web page last updated: 2024-01-21