Grand Apothecary Chess-Classic
Setup
The board is 12x12 with 8 brouhaha squares. The ranks are numbered (0),1,2,3,...,11,12,(13) with the parentheses standing for brouhaha squares only. There are in total 14400 initial possible setups. For the purpose of explaining the initial setup pieces are split into 7 categories:
- The king - the royal piece of the game. Always starts on g1 for white and g12 for black.
- The regular pawns almost fill up rank 3 for white and rank 10 for black. The exception are the the a and l files.There are also 2 pawns on rank 4 on the f and g files.
- The berolina pawns occupy the fields a3,l3,e4 and h4 for white, respectively a10,l10,e9 and h9 for black
- The main board fixed pieces. They are four rooks at a2,b1,l2 and k1, two cannons at a1 and l1, and two nightriders at c1 and j1 for white. For black four rooks at a1,b12,l11 and k12, two cannons at a12 and l12, and two nightriders at c12 and j12.
- On the brouhaha squares there are two joker at e0 and h0 for white and respectively e13 and a13 for black. Also on the brouhaha squares at f0 and g0 and respectively at f13 and g13 there are two caliphs for each player.
- On the fields d1,e1,f1,h1,i1 for white and d12,e12,f12,h12,i12 for black are designated the heavy piece area and are occupied in the initial position at random by a queen, a dragon, an unicorn, a firebird and a thunderbird. for each respective player. That leads to 120 possibilities.
- At rank 2 for white and 11 for black between files b and k inclusively lies the are where lighter pieces lie. They are arranged in pair symmetrical to the middle of the rank. There are 5 such pieces which are arranged randomly on the right side and then symmetrically on the left side of the rank. These pieces are: the bishop, the vulture, the knight, the mameluk and the siege elephant. This also leads to 120 possibilities.
Pieces
The King moves like an orthodox chess King and it is the royal piece of this game.
The Pawn moves like an orthodox pawn. It can promote at the furthest 3 ranks for each player. On the rank closest to the player it promotes to either bishop, knight, vulture, cannon, siege elephant or mameluke, On the next rank the pawn can also promote to rook, joker, knightrider or caliph.
At the furthest rank the pawn may also promote to queen, dragon, unicorn, firebird and thunderbird.
The Berolina Pawn is a reverted pawn that moves to the 2 forward fields and caputures ahead. Promotion rules are the same as with the regular pawn.
The Queen is an orthodox chess queen.
The unicorn is a knightrider+ bishop compound piece.
The Dragon is a bent rider. It starts the move like a ferz and may stop here or continues toward outside like a rook.
The Thunderbird is a bent rider. It starts with a diagonal move of exact 3 spaces (it can stop here or in the intermediate squares) and then continues towards outside like a rook. It may also move as an wazir.
The Firebird is a bent rider. It starts with and orthogonal move of exact 2 spaces (it may stop here or in the intermediate square) and then continues towards outside like a bishop. It may also move as an ferz.
The rook is an orthodox chess rook.
The knightrider is a knight that may continue by repeating the first move.
The joker does not have a move of it's own. Instead it copies the last move of the opponent.
The caliph is a bishop and camel (3 1 leaper) compound.
The cannon is the cannon from Xiangqi. It moves like a rook but captures by hoping over a piece called platform.
The bishop is a regular chess bishop.
The Vulture is a path mover akin to the falcon piece in falcon chess, but it's destinations are the 41&43 squares away from the piece.
The knight moves and captures like a regular knight but it can also move (but not capture) with a trebuchet (3,0) or a alfil(2,2) leap.
The siege elephant steps on step diagonally or jumps two steps diagonally or jumps three steps orthogonally..
The mameluk steps 1 step orthogonally or leaps like a camel (3,1).
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By Aurelian Florea.
Last revised by Aurelian Florea.
Web page created: 2021-01-29. Web page last updated: 2021-03-29