Square Root Chess
Stairchess is a chess variant designed by Max Koval in 2023. The game is played on an unusual ladder-alike board and uses stand chess equipment.
Setup
The coordinate system that applies to this board is the same as in standard chess, with the only remark that columns visually turn into diagonals.
Rules
Rules remain the same as in FIDE Chess with the only remark that pawns are not able to capture in the right, and on the contrary obtain an additional ability to passively move to the left horizontally, which essentially makes sense following the board's shape. As an example, a pawn e4 can passively move to f5 or d4, and capture on e5. Double step is allowed in both directions, pawns can make multiple double steps on the 2nd (White) and 7th (Black) rows.
Notes
I'm not sure if this game was described before (aside from Sergey Sirotkin's Ladder Chess) and do not really consider it original, yet it seems to me that it would have enough fun to play it, since everything about it remains the same, yet the whole game feels completely different.
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By Max Koval.
Web page created: 2023-11-15. Web page last updated: 2024-04-23