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This page is written by the game's inventor, Graeme Neatham.

Hex Dragonal Chess

This variant arose from a discussion initiated by Jeremy Good that can be found here.
A distinguishing feature is the unusual approach to defining directions of movement. This is covered more fully in the notes.

Setup


start array

The board consists of 127 hexes, and each player begins the game with 32 pieces; a piece-density of 50.4%.

Pieces


Name
Icon
Descriptiom
King
king
Moves 1-step horizontally or diagonally.  Possible moves are shown in the graphic by a blue dot.  There is no castling.

See under notes for an explanation of the terms for movement directions.
king move
Dragon King
dragon king
Slides horizontally or vertically, or takes 1-step like a King
the slide component is illustrated in the Queen's Graphic by the green dots
Bishop
bishop
Slides duagonally
the diagonal slide is illustrated in the Queen's Graphic by the blue dots
Elephant
elephant
Slides obliquely. 
the oblique slide is illustrated in the Leo's Graphic by the yellow dots
Knight
knight
Leaps 2-steps: the first obliquely or vertically; the second diagonally or horizontally, continuing away from the starting hex.  Possible moves shown by a blue dot. knight move
Archbishop
archbishop
Combines Bishop and Knight

Marshall
marshall
Slides horizontally or vertically, or makes a Knight's move the slide component is illustrated in the Queen's Graphic by the green dots
Leo
leo
Slides horizontally,  vertically, diagonally, or obliquely, but may only capture if leaping another piece, the screen.  The leap must be over only one piece and the destination cell must be occupied by an enemy piece.
leo
Queen
queen
Slides horizontally,  vertically, or diagonally
queen move
Pawn
pawn
May move a single step vertically forward but only if the destination is empty.
May move a single step diagonally forward but only if the destination contains an enemy piece.
If on or beyond the central rank may move a single step horizonally to the side but only if the destination is empty.
There is no double initial move. Promotes on reaching the far-most rank.
pawns
Berolina Pawn
berolina pawn
May move a single step diagonally forward but only if the destination is empty.
May move a single step vertically forward but only if the destination contains an enemy piece.
There is no double initial move. Promotes on reaching the far-most rank.

Rules

Apart from piece types, their initial placement, and piece movement (see "Setup" and "Pieces" above), FIDE rules apply.


Notes

Board Directions

These represent my interpretation of the description given by Jeremy Good at the start of this thread.
They are illustrated in the following graphic

directions

Hex Dragonal G Chess

Adds 2 Great-Grasshoppers, replacing 1 Leo and 1 Pawn.

The initial array becomes:


start array

Name
Icon
Descriptiom
Great-grasshopper
grasshopper
Moves like a Queen, sliding vertically, horizontally or diagonally, but must leap one and only one other piece, the screen, in making its move.

May land up to n cells beyond the screen where n was the number of cells it took to reach the screen.

Possible moves are shown in the graphic by a blue (non-capturing) or red (capturing) dot.
king move



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By Graeme C Neatham.
Web page created: 2009-08-02. Web page last updated: 2009-08-02