Three-handed chess
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Three-handed chess is a family of chess variants specially designed to be played by three people.[1] There are many variations of three-handed chess. They usually use some non-standard board, for example, hexagonal or three-sided board connected in the middle in a special way. Three player chess (and other games) variants are the hardest to design fairly because the imbalance that is created when two gang up on one is usually too great for the player to withstand.
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[edit] Hexagonal board
Many three player chess variants use hexagonal board. Pieces move usually as in one of versions of hexagonal chess:
- Chesh by Gianluca Moro.
- Chexs by Stephen P. Kennedy.
- Echexs by Jean-Louis Cazaux.
- HEXChess: commercial chess variant by HEXchess Inc.
[edit] Three-sided board
Often a special three-sided board is used:
- Self's variant: by Hency J. Self (1894).
- Three player chess: by Robert Zubrin (1972). The patent for this game describes a variant in which whoever is first to checkmate one of the other two players gains control of that player's forces. If more than one player's pieces contribute to a checkmate, this applies to whoever makes the final move that causes a checkmate.[2]
- Triple chess: chess board is extended with 8x3 rectangles on 3 sides. This game is invented by Philip Marinelli in 1722.
- Triochess (1975).
- Waider's game: by Waider (1837).
[edit] Other boards
Besides hexagonal and three-sided boards some other board forms were tried:
- 3-color chess: uses a special three-dimensional board or can be used with three colored boards.
- 3-man chess: uses round board.
- Orwell chess: cylindrical board is used, similar to cylinder chess.
[edit] See also
- Sannin shogi, a three-handed shogi variant played on a hexagonal board.
[edit] References
- ^ Pritchard, D. (2000). Popular Chess Variants. Bastford Chess Books. ISBN 0-7134-8578-7.
- ^ US3,652,091 – Three-player chess board – Robert Zubrin
