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This page is written by the game's inventor, Albert Lee. This game is a favorite of its inventor.

Platonic Chess

Platonic Chess is played on a 10x10 board. It consists of ten chess pieces based on the five Platonic solids, and a row of ten Pawns on the third rank.

Setup

Pieces

Pawns

There are ten pawns at the third rank, and they move as in Orthodox Chess.

Platonic Solids

There are two duplicate pieces for each Platonic solid type. The moves for each Platonic solid piece are as below:

Tetrahedron

A tetrahedron has 4 surfaces, so it can only reach 4 squares.

It moves one square orthogonally like the Wazir.

It is a royal piece like the King in orthodox chess, and can be put in check.

Cube

A cube has 6 surfaces, so it can only reach 6 squares.

It moves one square diagonally like the Ferz and slides up to two squares forward.

Octahedron

Octahedron has 8 surfaces, so it can only reach 8 squares.

It moves diagonally like a Bishop , but only up to two squares.

Dodecahedron

Dodecahedron has 12 surfaces, so it can only reach 12 squares.

It has the combined moves of Knight and Dabbabah.

Icosahedron

Icosahedron has 20 surfaces, so it can only reach 20 squares.

It moves like a Rook, but only up to four squares or like an Alfil.

Rules

Promotion

A Pawn can capture as a Platonic solid piece in addition to its original moves upon reaching the enemy side:

  • 1st rank - can capture as a Tetrahedron
  • 2nd rank - can capture as a Cube
  • 3rd rank - can capture as an Octahedron
  • 4th rank - can capture as a Dodecahedron
  • 5th rank (last) - can capture as an Icosahedron

The Pawn's additional capture ability is linked to the enemy rank it is on, and is not cumulative. When a promoted pawn moves away from the enemy side, it reverts to a regular pawn.

Castling

A Tetrahedron can perform the castling move with an Icosahedron on the same side. The final position is the same as the positions of the equivalent pieces (King and Rook) after Queenside castling in orthodox chess.

Checkmate

The game is won when an opponent Tetrahedron is checkmated.

Notes

How to play using commercially available equipment

You will need:

  • 1 x International Checkers set with a 10x10 board
  • 1 x Chess set (Black & White)
  • 4 x Platonic dice set (2 Black & 2 White)

Play with the ChessCraft App

Platonic Chess


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 Albert Lee.

Last revised by Ben Reiniger.


Web page created: 2021-06-26. Web page last updated: 2021-06-27

Revisions of MSplatonic-chess