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Grande Acedrex 3D - Part 4

No castling or king's leap rules in this game. Previous Zillions Rules Files for 6x6x6 games include Monster 3D Chess [L. Lynn Smith, 2001-11-24] and Tim's 6x6x6 3D Chess [Tim O'Lena, 2004-03-20]. Tim O'Lena also has armies with 16 Pawns and 16 other pieces - the idea of placing the 4 Knights in the center appears to be unique to my chess variant. As for my Q, R, B promotion proposal, people on the Yahoo! 3-d-chess group were talking about stronger pieces a year ago. Joe Joyce mentioned [#1743] the Magician (Gryphon) from Maxima, but did not join it to a Rook. And L. Lynn Smith posted [#1877] an extremely powerful version of the 3D Rook called the Pulsar.

[EDIT: Decided to stay with my original coordinate system. Tim O'Lena marches his Pawns 'sideways', while mine move 'up' and 'down'.] I believe that my Promoted Rook (with 3D Gryphon moves) has 63 possible moves from the cell (b2B), consisting of 18 one-step moves and 15 lines (each 3 cells long) extending out toward the faces of this 6x6x6 board. I hope that King and Promoted Rook can force a lone King into a mating position. Time will tell.

1a- 1b- 1c- 1d- 1e- 1f- * 2a- 2b- 2c- 2d- 2e- 2f- * (etc.) and 
1 2 3 4 5 6 are the coordinates required for six boards on a preset. 
Note that the Raumschach preset starts the Black pieces on 'level A'.
[2008 EDIT] I have created a Grande Acedrex 2007 preset - I do not intend 
to play this variant, but this preset can be adapted for other 6x6x6 games.
Try moving 'N 1c3-2b1' to see BLACK's upside down view of the board.  This 
move has the benefit of freeing up a square for the King to later retreat to.

On November 4, 2001, David Moeser made posts #976 and #977 in Yahoo chessvariants, suggesting that the Unicorn in Raumschach be replaced by a Ferzicorn. That is the first mention of the piece I am calling a Unicorn in my game. Here is an endgame position, with all four pieces on dark cells (empty dark cells are marked *). White: King (3b2) and Knight (3d4) and Unicorn (1c3), Black: King (1aA).

   level 1    -    level 2    -    level 3
 
   *   *   *  |  *   *   *    |    *   *   *  6
 *   *   *    |    *   *   *  |  *   *   *    5 
   *   *   *  |  *   *   *    |    *   N   *  4
 *   U   *    |    *   *   *  |  *   *   *    3
   *   *   *  |  *   *   *    |    K   *   *  2
 k   *   *    |    *   *   *  |  *   *   *    1
 
 a b c d e f  -  a b c d e f  -  a b c d e f
 
 1. Unicorn-2b2 check, King-1b2  2. Knight-2d2 mate.
 
   level 1    -    level 2    -    level 3
 
   *   *   *  |  *   *   *    |    *   *   *  6
 *   *   *    |    *   *   *  |  *   *   *    5 
   *   *   *  |  *   *   *    |    *   *   *  4
 *   *   *    |    *   *   *  |  *   *   *    3
   k   *   *  |  * U * N *    |    K   *   *  2
 *   *   *    |    *   *   *  |  *   *   *    1
 
 a b c d e f  -  a b c d e f  -  a b c d e f
 
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 [====]     by David Paulowich        [====]