This game is, as its name suggests, a variant of Chess played on the surface of a soccer ball, which consists of 20 hexagons and 12 pentagons. I found designing this 32-cell variant very challenging, but also rewarding. I was able to adapt some pieces from FIDE chess to the geometry of the soccer ball (namely the Rook, Bishop, Knight, and Pawn), and also invented a few new pieces specifically for this game (namely the Wizard, Satellite, Ringmaster, and Guard, along with the "hidden" and "royal" versions of those pieces). I borrowed some ideas from Hexagonal Chess, Circular Chess, and even Klinzha to create this game.
In the initial setup, all of the pieces have Pawns or Guards on top of them. The Pawns or Guards must move off before the pieces can move. You can do that by clicking on the cell where you want the Pawn or Guard to move. You *cannot* move a piece until the Pawn or Guard on top of it has moved off first.
One challenge was to represent the three-dimensional soccer ball on a two-dimensional surface. Borrowing a line from cartography, I settled on an AZIMUTHAL PROJECTION centred on a "pole", with distortion of distances further from the pole. In simple terms, this meant centring the ball on Pentagon A, cutting it open, flattening it out, and expanding all the cells around A. It's not very cosmetic, but it does the trick. If anybody with better graphic skills than mine wishes to improve the look of the board, please do so!
The King begins the game off-board. The first move of the game is to "crown" on of your other pieces, making it royal. In the Zillions of Games implementation, do that by clicking on the King (who occupies a dummy-cell off-board) and moving it on top of the piece of your choice.
PIECES
Brief descriptions of each piece follow. The "Images" folder bundled with the ZIP file includes graphics demonstrating the movements.
KING - this piece is inspired by the Goal in Klinzha. The King, who begins the game off- board, has no movement powers of his own (except on the first move of the game) and must be carried by another piece. The first move of the game is, therefore, to move the King on top of the piece that will carry him. The Zillions version treats the King and the piece carrying him as a single piece. The ROYAL ROOK, ROYAL BISHOP, ROYAL KNIGHT, ROYAL RINGMASTER, ROYAL SATELLITE, and ROYAL WIZARD are the resulting pieces. Each royal piece retains the movement capabilities of its simple form, but may not move into or through check.
ROOK - rides any number of cell along a straight path between two pentagons.
BISHOP - rides in diagonal loops - defined as hexagonal cells connected by a line between two other cells. Players of many hexagonal chess variants will recognize this piece.
WIZARD - rides in pentagonal loops - defined as pentagonal cells connected by a line between two hexagonal cells. The Wizard moves on pentagons much as the Bishop does on hexagons, and was inspired by the hexagonal bishop.
KNIGHT - leaps (a) from one hexagon to another hexagon three cells away, (b) from a hexagon to a pentagon three cells away, or (c) from a pentagon to a hexagon three cells away.
RINGMASTER - rides in hexagonal loops around a single pentagon. As each hexagon is adjacent to three pentagons, a Ringmaster may move in any one of three directions.
SATELLITE - rides in crooked hexagonal loops around "equators", i.e., paths that divide the board equally in two. Each "equator" consists of ten hexagons and has five hexagons and six pentagons on either side of it.
PAWN - moves one cell without capturing on hexagons, or captures by moving one cell from a hexagon to a pentagon, on which it morphs into a Guard. The Pawn, unlike its FIDE counterpart, may move backward or sideways as well as forwards. At the beginning of the game, every Pawn stands on top of another piece and must move off before that piece can move. The Pawn may not attack a royal piece (i.e., a piece carrying the King).
GUARD - moves one cell without capturing on pentagons, or captures by moving one cell from a pentagon to a hexagon, on which it morphs into a Guard. At the beginning of the game, the Guard stands on top of the Wizard, and must move off before the Wizard can move. The Guard may not attack a royal piece (i.e., a piece carrying the King).
HIDDEN PIECES - pieces with Pawns or Guards on top of them, and are paralyzer until the Pawn or Guard moves off. NOTE : if you are playing Zillions, the yellow and red pieces in the initial setup are really white and black pieces, respectively, with Pawns or Guards on them. When the Pawn or Guard moves off, the piece left behind will change colour.
ROYAL PIECES - ordinary pieces that are carrying a King. In Zillions, when the King mounts a piece, a crown appears above it.
HOW TO PLAY
- The game begins by moving the King on top of the piece that will carry him. Any piece in the initial setup may be chosen.
- Next, start moving Pawns and Guards off pieces. In the Zillions implementation, you will get an error message if you try to move a piece with a Pawn or Guard on top of it - "Sorry, that piece cannot move now." Choose a piece, and click your mouse on the cell where you want the Pawn or Guard to move. It will move off, leaving the piece behind - which will change colour (yellow to white, red to black).
- Pawns and Guards *may not* give check to a royal piece. You may well ask why not. When play-testing with Zillions of Games, I found that every game seemed to be like "fool's mate" in FIDE - every game lasted a mere 3-5 moves, with White winning every time. Frankly, I don't find "fool's mate" much fun - I like games to last a little while. I found the pawns were responsible for most of the premature checkmates, so I disabled their ability to attack royal pieces.
- In the CHIVALROUS version, a royal piece may not attack another royal piece. In the default version, however, it may.
- The game is won by checkmate, stalemate, or baring the enemy King.
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