| Grand Rider Chess explores the interaction of line pieces (riders) and pawns. All pieces except the king are riders, which move repeatedly in the same direction. Whether the piece slides (e.g., bishop), or jumps (e.g., alfilrider), it can move through arbitrarily many empty squares, and possibly capture an enemy piece on the last square. The squares of the board are colored to make it easier to see the moves and ranges of the various jumping riders. There are just enough of each kind of rider to cover all the squares.
The Alfilrider (E) (a.k.a. Elephant Rider) repeatedly jumps diagonally two squares. It is confined to the 18 squares of its exact color.
The Dabbabarider (D) (a.k.a. War Machine Rider) repeatedly jumps orthogonally two squares. It is confined to the 36 light and dark squares of its specific hue (blue, green, yellow, tan).
The Alibabarider (A) combines the moves of the Alfilrider and the Dabbabarider. It is also confined to the 36 light and dark squares of its specific hue.
The Camelrider (C) repeatedly makes Camel moves in the same direction. The basic Camel move is a jump 1 square in one direction, and 3 squares in the other direction. The Camelrider is confined to either the 72 cool squares (blue, green) or the 72 warm squares (yellow, tan).
The Nightrider (N) repeatedly makes Knight moves in the same direction. It can reach any square.
The Bishop (B), Rook (R), and Queen (Q) move as in orthodox chess. Note that the Bishops in this color scheme are also confined to the cool or warm squares.
The Pawn (P) moves as in orthodox chess, with a double move optional from the starting rank.
The Berolina Pawn (V) steps forward one space diagonally, and captures one space directly forward. It has an optional double or triple step from the player's third rank, and an optional double step from the player's fourth rank.
Besides the usual P x P en passant capture, either type of pawn can take a Berolina Pawn en passant. If the Berolina Pawn takes a double step, it can be captured as if it only took a single step. If the Berolina Pawn takes a triple step, it can be taken as if it only took a single or double step.
Either type of pawn can promote upon reaching a square in the enemy camp (last four ranks). It can only promote to a friendly piece already taken, and only on one of the squares the promoted piece could originally reach (or equivalently, the promoted piece must not be able to reach the square of a friendly piece of the same type still on the board). Thus, it is sometimes advisable to wait to promote on a better square, or wait until a better piece is available. If the Pawn or Berolina Pawn reaches the last rank, it must promote, if only to a Superpawn (S), or Berolina Superpawn (X), respectively. These move like their ordinary counterparts, but backward as well as forward.
Castling in the main variant is performed with either of the Dabbabariders on the first rank, with the King sliding next to the Dabbabarider, and the Dabbabarider jumping over.
Either checkmate or stalemate wins, but stalemate should be very rare, considering how many promotable pawns there are.
The rules file is adapted from the Zillions Fairy Chess zrf, and the piece images are adapted from David Howe's Alfaerie Variant Chess Graphics. |
