Check out McCooey's Hexagonal Chess, our featured variant for May, 2025.

This page is written by the game's inventor, Gerd Degens.

The Royal Substitute Chess

 
By Gerd P. Degens

 

A game in which there are no kings in the starting position. They are replaced by royal pawns, nine in number. They move like pawns, but have the royal function. On the opponent's base line, pawns transform into king pieces, move like kings from there and retain their royal function unchanged. The game ends when the last royal pawn or king on one side has been captured.

Setup

files=9 ranks=7 promoZone=1 promoChoice=K graphicsDir=/graphics.dir/alfaeriePNG/ squareSize=50 graphicsType=png stalemate=win baring=0 royal=P lightShade=#ffffcf oddShade=#70b09f darkShade=#70b09f coordColor=#70b09f holeColor=#CECEF6 royal pawn:P:fnWfnDfmF:quickpawn:a2,c2,e2,g2,i2,b1,d1,f1,h1,,a6,c6,e6,g6,i6,b7,d7,f7,h7 knight:N:N:knight:b2,h2,,b6,h6 rook:R:R:rook:a1,i1,,a7,i7 dragon horse:H:BW:promotedbishop:c1,g1,,c7,g7 halfqueen:Q:Q3:queen:d2,e1,f2,,d6,e7,f6 king:K:K:king:

Pieces

The pieces move and capture according to the table below.

Rules

Stalemate is a win, bare king loses, the en passant capturing does not happen. King pawns are converted into king pieces on the opponent's base line, move from there like kings and retain their royal function. In addition, the game ends when the last royal pawn or king of one side has been captured.

royal pawnsteps one square straight ahead, or diagonally forward to an empty square, or slides to the 2nd square straight ahead
knightmakes a knight's jump
rookslides orthogonally
dragon horseslides diagonally, or steps one square orthogonally
halfqueenslides up to 3 squares in all 8 directions
kingsteps one square in all 8 directions

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 Gerd P. Degens.

Last revised by Gerd Degens.


Web page created: 2025-02-05. Web page last updated: 2025-02-05

Revisions of MSthe-royal-substitute-chess