Grand Chess Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• General Principles & Rules
  • What is a Chess variant?
  • Check, checkmate & stalemate
  • 3-fold repetition
  • Pieces
  • Pawns
  • Promotion
  • Inner Balance
• Grand Chess
  • Initial setup
  • General
  • The Marshall and the Cardinal
  • Rules
  • Balance
  • Problems

General Principles & Rules

The games in this compilation have certain rules in common. These are not repeated in each game's section below and apply to Grand Chess.

What is a Chess variant?

To answer that question we must consider the common factors in all Chess type games. These are:

• There's a playing area called 'the board'.
• There is an 'absolute piece', the King - though it may have a different name - which is the opponent's ultimate target.
• There are pieces to ultimately attack this target.
• Players move, and must move, in turn.

Implicitly the games are contests between two players.

Grand Chess is played on a square board.

Check, checkmate & stalemate

Attacking the opponent's King is called 'giving check'. A King may not move into check and must always parry it the next move. If a King is in check and unable to parry, this is called 'checkmate'. Checkmate usually ends the game, but it is important to realize that this is a sophistication based on a state of unavoidable and imminent capture.

• All games in this compilation have checkmate as the object of the game.

Situations may arise where the King is in zugzwang and not in check, but with no other option than to move into check. This is called 'stalemate'.

• In all games in this compilation, stalemate is a draw.

3-fold repetition

• Any game in this compilation ends in a draw if the same position appears for the third time, with the same player to move.

Pieces

Generally people have the notion that there should be different pieces and that they should be able to capture one another by displacement. None of this is the case in every game of this compilation.

Pawns

Pawns generally have a forward orientation. In Grand Chess all pawns are basically Chess pawns.

Promotion

In Grand Chess only pawns have the right to promote.

Inner Balance

This is a requirement for any board game. In Chess systems it is a function of the number of distinct pieces and their power. Grand Chess shows a good example by following the harmonic series (i.e. 1, 1+2, 1+2+3, 1+2+3+4). Thus there's one King and three high-ranking officers, six low-ranking officers and ten pawns.

Grand Chess

Diagram 1: initial position. The board has ten files, a to j, and ten ranks, 1 to 10.

Initial setup

From the initial position (Diagram 1):

• White (ranks 1 to 3): on rank 1, a Rook on a1 and a Rook on j1; on rank 2, a Knight on b2, a Bishop on c2, a Queen on d2, a King on e2, a Marshall on f2, a Cardinal on g2, a Bishop on h2 and a Knight on i2; on rank 3, ten pawns on a3 to j3.
• Black (ranks 8 to 10): on rank 10, a Rook on a10 and a Rook on j10; on rank 9, a Knight on b9, a Bishop on c9, a Queen on d9, a King on e9, a Marshall on f9, a Cardinal on g9, a Bishop on h9 and a Knight on i9; on rank 8, ten pawns on a8 to j8.

Putting all pieces except Rooks on the second rank, with the Rooks free from the onset, is the design principle of the game. The Marshall and the Cardinal are inserted in the regular order of pieces.

General

Chess, in its recent form, dates back some 500 years. It was then, in the middle of the renaissance, that someone cared to take a less traditionally preoccupied look at the game of Shatranj, that had come from the Arabic world where it had been played for over a millennium.

The unknown inventor liberated the Bishops, that with their two-square diagonal jump had till then led a crippled existence, and gave pawns the right to promote to any piece, where they had been restricted to the Firzan or Minister, a piece able to move only one square diagonally. He took this very Firzan and turned it into a piece of unprecedented strength: the Queen, with the combined powers of the Rook and the Bishop. The choice of Rook and Bishop follows the basic patterns of the board.

The other combinations, Rook & Knight and Bishop & Knight, have since then led a marginal existence throughout Chess history. Grand Chess implements them as two new pieces, the Marshall (Rook & Knight) and the Cardinal (Bishop & Knight), as shown in Diagrams 2 and 3.

The board is square. Pawns keep their regular distance and behaviour. The Rooks are free from the onset, so there is no need for a castling rule.

The Marshall and the Cardinal

• Marshall (Diagram 2): combines the powers of the Rook and the Knight. Diagram 2 shows the Marshall on e5 with the squares it can move to marked (the Rook's lines and the Knight's jumps).
• Cardinal (Diagram 3): combines the powers of the Bishop and the Knight. Diagram 3 shows the Cardinal on f5 with the squares it can move to marked (the Bishop's diagonals and the Knight's jumps).

Editorial note: the text does not spell out these movements in words; they are taken from the marked squares in Diagrams 2 and 3 of the source.

Note that the Cardinal, despite the fact that it is the weakest of the three major pieces, is the only piece that can checkmate a cornered King without support.

Rules

Since the rules, other than the very presence of the new pieces, deviate little from orthodox Chess, it is sufficient to point out the differences.

• There is no castling rule.
• Pawns promote optionally on moving to the eighth or ninth rank, compulsory on moving to the tenth.
• A pawn may only promote to a piece previously lost by its side. If no pieces are lost, the pawn may not move to the tenth rank. However, if a pawn attacks a King on the tenth rank, no piece being lost by its side, it nevertheless gives check.

That an option is better than an obligation is shown in Problem 1, where White mates in 2.

That pawns only promote to a piece previously lost, not only satisfies a sense of completeness, but also marks the end of topsy turvy Rooks. Grand Chess can afford this rule because of the presence of three major pieces. It may, under circumstances, create the need for an exchange before promoting.

Balance

One does not have to be a genius to see that the internal balance of this game differs from Chess. This means, among other things, that the relative values of pieces must be established or adjusted. All pieces seem diminished by the sheer presence of two formidable new forces. The Queen suddenly finds herself between equals, one slightly stronger and one slightly weaker. The Rooks lose part of their dominance in this environment. Bishops are definitely light artillery, and Knights even more so, because their power decreases with increasing board-size.

No piece will find itself outside the boundaries of balance once the outlines of opening play have been established. Moreover, there is some amount of counterbalance involved in the case of Rooks, because they may be employed from the onset, and pawns, because they may promote sooner and usually with a wider choice of heavy options. Endgames differ considerably from orthodox Chess.

Problems

The problems are presented as diagrams on a 10x10 board. Problems 2, 3 and 4 were previously published in Games magazine (January 1987). Problems 5, 6 and 7 are by the inventor.

• Problem 1: mate in 2.
• Problem 2: mate in 2.
• Problem 3: mate in 2.
• Problem 4: mate in 3.
• Problem 5: mate in 3.
• Problem 6: mate in 3.
• Problem 7: mate in 2.

Solutions (key moves as printed): 1. i8 2. Q j10 + 3. Q a9 4. C a7 5. Q c8 6. R j2 7. C i6