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Hyperchess. A chess variant on a board representing 4-D space that closely parallels traditional Chess. (4x(), Cells: 256) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
💡📝Joe Joyce wrote on Wed, Nov 24, 2004 08:41 PM UTC:The bishop 'color-change' moves pretty much need to be capturing moves. The extremely low piece density and the change in the pawn's move/capture basically force this. The pieces need to be sort of 'sticky' to balance the density; and the somewhat stronger pawns (2 pawns can support each other)to an extent force the stronger bishop. I think the knight is also stronger, but this is because the geometry of a 4x4x4x4 board favors a piece that moves [+/- 1, +/- 2,0,0]. Stronger relative to the rook in this game, that is. I'm not sure how a rook in this game compares in 'actual' strenght to a 2D or 3D rook. The size of the board, small, favors the power of the rook. Thanks for the comment. The king hold rule took me about 2 years to come up with.
This game could also played with the rule that the pieces can can move as
if
the board were 16x16, this means every piece can cross the boundary of two
boards without 'jumping' squares. The word 'jumping' is in quotes
because the pieces with single-step moves and Knights would still have to
do this.
Damn! I recently had a very similar idea for a 5x5 set of 5x5 boards. Thought I was the first. I guess my game will have to be a Hyperchess variant. :)
💡📝Joe Joyce wrote on Fri, Apr 13, 2007 03:43 PM UTC:Joshua, I thought I was the first, too. V.R. Parton beat us both. At the great risk of being immodest, I will suggest my version might be a little better than Sphinx Chess, so I encourage you to push on with your design. The problems of 4D chess are very, very far from being solved, and a new view is always good. J.C. Ruhf, my apologies for not acknowledging your comment sooner. You are proposing a mixed 2D-4D variant, with all pieces able to move either way. I did post a mixed dimensions game, with bishops and knights always moving in 2D, rooks and kings always moving in 4D, pawns able to choose either, and queens and chancellors moving as 4D rook and either 2D bishop or knight. It's a tough game. Your suggestion creates a real mindbender of a game; I'd want Spock on my side just for starters. I have learned some things about piece values. Pawns are noticeably stronger than their FIDE counterparts. Bishops are stronger than rooks. The most amazing thing is that knights and queens are about the same strength here. Just seeing the knight's possible moves is difficult. In view of this, I designed a 'flat' variant called Chess on 2 Boards, which eliminates knights and any move that has '4D freedom'. The game becomes [much?] easier to play with this change.
This is pretty dang cool! I really enjoy 4D variants.
💡📝Joe Joyce wrote on Thu, Nov 8, 2007 08:49 PM UTC:Jonathon, thank you for the comment and rating. If you enjoy 4D, you might want to look at the work of Dan Troyka, who's done a series of multi-D games, and some of LLSmith's work, which I consider 4D [and beyond, as Dan's] though he doesn't consider it to be anything more than very complex 3D. I'm sure you know about Jim Aikin's Chesseract and my Walkers and Jumpers, but Dale Holmes has done a 4D game on the CV wiki called Taiga, although the last time I looked, the pictures were 'broken'. Joe
Having simply found the concept incredibly interesting upon my last comment, I finally got around to testing this game with Zillions. It's terrific! Chesseract, though quite interesting, is too complicated for me to actually find playable. Sphinx chess just doesn't seem to work. Hyperchess's simplicity, yet translation to four dimensions works so well. I find this game and Timeline to be my two favorite 4D variants.
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