Diamond chess
In March 1886 “ The British Chess Magazine ” published a chess variant by Porterfield Rynd under the name DIAMOND CHESS , in which the normal chess board is placed like a diamond on the white-squared point of h1. In this way, it lies in front of the two players with a white-field point each.
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Starting position in diamond chess. (The board would have to be turned 45 ° to the right.)
Special features when dragging the figures
The pieces move as usual. Only the pawns move diagonally (in the direction of the bishop) towards the opposing camp. But they can hit like a tower - to the left and right; but only on the corresponding neighboring field. Castling is logically not possible; about hitting en passant or Bauerndoppelzug was first set, nothing is known, the latter seems illogical in most cases, or even impossible for the central pawns.
The pawn promotion takes place on one of the opposite edge squares: for Black a1. … H1. … H8 or a1 for White. … A8. … H8.
Charm of the game
The reversal of the pawn's normal move gives the game an original note and offers new combination options, which the inventor even assessed as "higher than in normal chess ", which, however, seems exaggerated. Two pawns connected on adjacent diagonals can move forward step by step, so that after each move one protects the other, which is not possible in normal chess because there is only one possible move with two capture possibilities.
The number of moves that are required to reach a conversion space fluctuates considerably and amounts to at least four, but at most ten. In orthodox chess, a pawn can reach the conversion square in five to six moves.
variants
Further varieties of diagonal chess with more or less minor deviations were created by I. Legan in France in 1913 and JA Lewis in England in 1943 , while Edmund Nebermann from Berlin took up the idea of an "inverted pawn movement" in his "Berolina chess" in 1926 . He was also the author of a radio chess program in the 1920s.
Sample lot
White: P. Rynd
Black: TB Rowland
1. d3 c4 2. Be2 e6 3. d4 c4xd4 4. e4xd4 Bd7 5. e4 b4 6. Bf3 e7 7. d2 Rg8 8. Rc1 f6 9. c3 f5 10. c4 b4xc4 11. c3xc4 d5xd4 12. e4xd4 f5xf4 13. Nxf4 Nb5 14. Ne4 Rf8 15. c4xc5 Bxc5 16. NxL NxS 17. Qf1 (if 17. RxS, then 17.… Ra1 + the queen wins) 17.… Nb3 18. c5! NxT 19. QxSc1 Nd4 20. Rb2 Nb3 21. Qb1 Ra3 (if 21.… Ra1, there is a threat of 22.Ra2 + RxT 23.QxT † Kb8 24.Nd3 Bxd6 +) 22.Nd3 g5 23. f5 Rxf5 24.Bg2 Qa6 25. Nb4 Da4 26.Nc2 Qg4 27.NxT QxL 28th RxS Qxh4 + 29.Bh3 Qh8 30.Nc4 Rf1 + 31. QxT h4D 32.Nb4 + Kb7 33.Nd5 + Kc8 (if Ka7, mate in 4 moves) 34.Q6 + Kd8 35. Rb8 + Bc8 36.DxL ††
source
- GDR youth newspaper (today's "left, Marxist-oriented, national daily newspaper") Junge Welt , article "Brettspiele"; presented and explained by Heinz Machatscheck, edition approx. 1975
Footnotes
- ^ Edmund Nebermann: Radio chess. Easy to read textbook for radio listeners. With chess game. Walter de Gruyter & Co., Berlin / Leipzig 1926.