Officer Chess
I came up with the idea of Officer Chess in 2019, but left it unpublished, as I had felt unsure of its merits. Some years later Very Heavy Chess was invented independently by Jean-Louis Cazaux, with the same 14 piece types being used (but it's played on a much bigger board). In some cases I had preferred slightly different names, for a relatively small number of the unorthodox piece types used.
Setup
Pieces
Officer Chess uses the 6 piece types of chess, plus 8 unorthodox piece types:
Amazon — Can move like a Queen or Knight.
Ship — Can move like a Rook, Knight, or Ferz. Also known as Heroine.
Freemason — Can move like a Bishop, Knight, or Wazir. Also known as Templar or Popess.
Chancellor — Can move like a Rook or Knight. Also commonly called Marshall.
Archbishop — Can move like a Bishop or Knight. Also commonly called Cardinal.
Sailor — Can move like a Rook or step one square diagonally like a Ferz. Known in Shogi as Dragon King.
Missionary — Can move like a Bishop or step one square orthogonally like a Wazir. Known in Shogi as Dragon Horse.
Judge — Can step one square in any direction like a non-royal King or leap like a Knight. More commonly known as Centaur.
Rules
Officer Chess follows the rules of chess, except as noted below.
In Officer Chess, castling is as in chess (though on the second rank). Pawns move as in chess and promotion is on the last rank, to any piece type in the setup, except for K.
Threefold repetition of position or stalemate is a draw as in chess, and the 50 move rule is also in effect (i.e. game drawn if no captures or pawn moves have been made before 50 consecutive moves by both sides).
Notes
In Officer Chess, possible are Fool's Mate and some versions of Scholar's Mate, like in orthodox chess. The Freenasons lurking in their corners at the start of a game can prove quite deadly at times, in the event of a big mistake by an opponent if he has castled kingside. One way to try to preempt such a possibility early on is to make a kingside fianchetto of the king's bishop (as in chess openings).
This 'user submitted' page is a collaboration between the posting user and the Chess Variant Pages. Registered contributors to the Chess Variant Pages have the ability to post their own works, subject to review and editing by the Chess Variant Pages Editorial Staff.
By Kevin Pacey.
Last revised by Kevin Pacey.
Web page created: 2024-03-01. Web page last updated: 2024-03-01