Dragonfly Chess

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Chess on 7x7 fields - Dragonfly Chess.png

Dragonfly Chess (German: dragonfly chess) is a variant of the game of chess on a reduced field. It was developed by the Dutch game designer Christian Freeling .

This variant dispenses with the women on a field of 7 × 7 = 49 fields. The midfield is always black. The light pieces stand, both white knights on the right, the white pair of bishops on the left side of the king positioned centrally on the back row, so that instead of a king's or queen's wing, one can speak of a knight's or bishop's wing. As usual, the towers occupy the corner spaces. The pawns stand in the second row in front of the pieces. The black pieces are mirror images of this on the seventh row, the pawns on the sixth row.

The pieces move and capture as usual, but there is no double step with the pawns and therefore no en-passer-by capture. Defeated officers change hands and become "figure in hand", so they can be used on any free field, similar to the Japanese Shogi . The betting counts as a move, but it may not be captured immediately while the betting is being made. The stones placed only become fully effective with the next move, so you cannot bid check at the same time as placing a pawn as with a conventional pawn conversion. The concept of restoring pieces in practice requires a second set of officers for each player or the use of special tokens for the officers who e.g. B. the Shogi stones are geometrically modeled.

On the other hand, defeated pawns leave the playing field irrevocably. Pawns on the opposing base line can only be converted into pieces that have been captured beforehand. B. find a maximum of four runners in total on the field. If no pieces have yet been captured, no pawn may be moved to the last row or converted. Castling is permitted under the usual conditions. Because placed rooks have already moved, they may not be castling, even if they are placed on a corner. Since the officers never leave the field for good, but can be used again and again, draws are rare. In addition, Freeling developed a hexagonal variant on 61 fields with the same set of pieces (without queens) plus two extra pawns.

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