Wildebeest Chess
Wildebeest Chess is a chess variant created by R. Wayne Schmittberger in 1987.[1] The Wildebeest gameboard is 11×10 squares, and besides the standard chess pieces, each side has one wildebeest and two camels.
The intent of the inventor is to balance, in comparison to chess, "the number of 'riders'—pieces that move along open lines—with the number of 'leapers'—pieces that jump". (So for each side, two knights, two camels, and one wildebeest balance two rooks, two bishops, and one queen.)
The game was played regularly in the (now defunct) correspondence game club kNights Of the Square Table (NOST).[note 1]
Game rules
- Moves of the wildebeest and camel
The camel in Wildebeest Chess moves and captures the same as the camel fairy chess piece; namely, like an elongated chess knight – jumping over any intervening pieces in a 2×4 rectangular pattern. (Thus, each camel is bound to one square color only.) The wildebeest can move and capture as either a camel or a chess knight.
- Other special rules
Play, moves, and captures are the same as in standard chess, except for these special game rules:
- On the first move, a pawn may advance one, two, or three squares in a single move.
- Pawns that have advanced one square (i.e., white pawns on the third rank, or black pawns on the eighth rank) can advance one or two squares in a single move.
- Pawns that have advanced two squares or more (i.e., white pawns on the fourth rank or beyond, or black pawns on the seventh rank or beyond) may advance only one step at a time.
- A pawn that has advanced two or three squares in a single move may be captured en passant, if an enemy pawn on an adjacent file could have captured the pawn on a square the pawn passed. (As in chess, the option to capture en passant must be taken immediately or the right is lost.)
- A pawn may promote to only a queen, or a wildebeest.
- All chess castling rules apply, with the only difference that the castling player can choose to slide his king over one, two, three, or four squares in the castling move. (As in chess, the castling rook ends on the opposite side of the king on the square adjacent.)
- Besides checkmate, stalemate is also a win. (So, the player who cannot move, loses.)
See also
Notes
- ^ Formed in 1960 by Bob Lauzon and Jim France, NOST held an annual convention and enjoyed several hundred active members.[2]
Citations
- ^ Pritchard (1994), p. 341
- ^ Pritchard (1994), p. 210
References
- Pritchard, D. B. (1994). The Encyclopedia of Chess Variants. Games & Puzzles Publications. ISBN 0-9524142-0-1.
- Schmittberger, R. Wayne (1992). "Wildebeest Chess". New Rules for Classic Games. Wiley. p. 206. ISBN 978-0471536215.
External links