Introducing the extraordinary but deadly Serpent that mutates into the Flying Bomber, Raptor, Cannon, Vao, Stealth Gryphon or Anti-Gryphon.

Holy Grail is played like standard chess except for the new pieces, and a few modifications to the pawn initial moves, en-passant and flexible castling.

It is played on a larger 104 Square board, and features the following pieces:

The Battle Templar is a color bound piece that can move one or leap two steps diagonally or leap 2 squares orthogonally. It can capture by replacement only on the square it lands.
The Warmachine Alfil can move one or leap two steps orthogonally or leap 2 squares diagonally. It is the exact inverse of the Battle Templar. It can capture by replacement only on the square it lands.
The Ferz-Knight - moves like a knight or makes one step diagonally.
The Wazir-Knight - moves like a knight or makes one step orthogonally.

The Mutating Serpent is a piece that can transform itself into various piece types: the Flying Bomber, the Raptor, the Cannon, the Vao, the Stealth Gryphon, the Anti-Gryphon, the Ferz Sorcerer and the Wazir Conjurer.

• It can be dropped in an empty space on the two outer squares only.
• Dropping it constitute a turn. The piece can only be moved on the next turn.
• Transforming into another piece also takes a turn.
• The mutating serpent must be dropped as one of its mutating forms, and it can mutate only after making at least one move during its current mutation. Thus, if dropped as a raptor it can only be transformed into a Flying Bomber any turn after making a move as a Raptor.

The serpent mutations: (see piece help for more detailed info)

Flying Bomber moves like a rook and captures by flying over enemy. It also makes a special capture by replacement 2 squares away. It can also jump over an adjacent friendly piece.
The raptor is the diagonal version of the Flying Bomber.
The Cannon is the same piece as in Chinese chess.
The Vao is the diagonal equivalent of cannon.
The Stealth Gryphon slides to squares along an unobstructed path of one diagonal square followed by two or more orthogonal squares outwards.
The Stealth Anti-Gryphon - Slides along unobstructed path of one orthogonal square followed by two or more diagonal outwards.
The Ferz Sorcerer jumps an extended leap like a zebra or steps one diagonally.
The Wazir Conjurer jumps an extended leap like a camel or steps one orthogonally.

The Ninja Pawns:

This special pawn can move/capture like a regular pawn as well as move 1 space sideways. When in enemy territory it can also capture 1 space sideways.
It can move 1-multiple spaces toward the center and en-passant does not apply.

Up to 4 Ninja Pawns can be dropped (1 per turn) to an empty space on the 2nd rank , and you can optionally make the forward thrust in the same move.

See the piece help/description for more info.

Rule Changes:
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1. Flexible Castling - The king can castle by moving 1 to 4 squares towards rook. The rook always ends up next to the king on the other side as in standard chess. The same rules: cannot castle out of check, king cannot pass over squares attacked by enemy etc apply.
   The choice of castling depends on whether it is more desirable to immediately have the rook in the center file or the king tucked away at the wing.

   Note: When carrying out 1 step castling, Zillions pops up a box asking to choose a move.
   The second move indicating kings move AND the rook to move to king square is the castling move.

2. The standard pawn move is modified slightly – it can now move 1,2, or 3 squares initially. It can also move two spaces forward if it moved only 1 space or captured from original position.

   En-passant is modified to accommodate this. A pawn that attempts to bypass an enemy pawn by making a double or triple move is captured En-passant.

   This En-passant only applied to standard pawns. Ninja pawns cannot capture or be captured this way.

3. Pawns and ninja pawns promote in the last rank to any piece.

For full details see: http://chess.computerwebservices.net/holy.php

*** Instructions for Dropping Ninja Pawns / and Mutating Serpent ****
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Clicking on an empty square in 2nd rank will drop a ninja pawn. The program then waits for you to make the forward thrusting move.
If you choose not to make the forward move, CLICK ON the ICON for PASS MOVE or from the menu: Select PLAY and then choose PASS MOVE.

The Mutating Serpent -
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Click on empty rear square to drop it. You have to wait for next turn to move it.
If moved as previous form, clicking on the piece will transform it into another. A box pops up giving a choice of mutations. This transformation counts as a move.