Cylinder chess

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Cylinder chessboard
Cylinder chessboard

Cylinder chess is a chess variant of the classic chess on 8 by 8 squares, with identical rules, only with the crucial difference that the a and h lines are connected. Imagine the chessboard rolled into a cylinder so that the left and right sides collide. A knight can jump from h2 to b3 , for example .

example

The following chess composition illustrates possible moves on a cylinder chessboard:

Checkmate in two moves
  a b c d e f G H  
8th Chess --t45.svg Chess --t45.svg Chess --t45.svg Chess --t45.svg Chess --t45.svg Chess --t45.svg Chess --t45.svg Chess --t45.svg 8th
7th Chess --t45.svg Chess --t45.svg Chess --t45.svg Chess --t45.svg Chess --t45.svg Chess --t45.svg Chess --t45.svg Chess pdt45.svg 7th
6th Chess pdt45.svg Chess --t45.svg Chess --t45.svg Chess --t45.svg Chess --t45.svg Chess --t45.svg Chess --t45.svg Chess plt45.svg 6th
5 Chess rlt45.svg Chess --t45.svg Chess --t45.svg Chess --t45.svg Chess --t45.svg Chess --t45.svg Chess --t45.svg Chess --t45.svg 5
4th Chess --t45.svg Chess --t45.svg Chess --t45.svg Chess --t45.svg Chess --t45.svg Chess --t45.svg Chess --t45.svg Chess --t45.svg 4th
3 Chess --t45.svg Chess --t45.svg Chess klt45.svg Chess --t45.svg Chess --t45.svg Chess --t45.svg Chess --t45.svg Chess --t45.svg 3
2 Chess --t45.svg Chess --t45.svg Chess --t45.svg Chess --t45.svg Chess --t45.svg Chess --t45.svg Chess --t45.svg Chess --t45.svg 2
1 Chess --t45.svg Chess kdt45.svg Chess --t45.svg Chess --t45.svg Chess --t45.svg Chess --t45.svg Chess --t45.svg Chess --t45.svg 1
  a b c d e f G H  

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On the normal chessboard, White simply mates with 1. Ra5xa6 Kb1 – c1 2. Ra6 – a1. But this does not work on the cylinder chessboard because the pawn is covered: Black would 1.… h7xa6! play. 1.Ra5 – a5 is correct ! - White makes a round trip and ends up back at the starting point. Now has Black 1. ... Kb1-c1 draw and with the second Ta5-a1 checkmated.

castling

In cylinder chess there are two possible variations for castling:

  • According to the classic rules of chess, when castling, the king is moved two squares towards the rook. Since the king can approach each of the two rooks in both directions on the cylinder board, castling is also possible with each rook in any direction. Thus, for example, the white king can castle with Ta1 in such a way that both stand as if after short castling.
  • Since there is no center and no edge in cylinder chess, the king is basically equally secure on all lines; and the towers are inherently connected. Castling has thus lost its meaning and it is played without it.

Evaluation of the characters

Compared to normal chess, the diagonally moving pieces queen and bishop are clearly upgraded. You can move far beyond the edges and possibly attack more opposing points at the same time than would be possible in normal chess. The rook loses its importance in relation to one another, mainly because the lack of corners on the chessboard means that the king and rook can no longer force mate.

variants

  • Sometimes moves are explicitly forbidden "on the field" as in the diagram above.
  • If you also think of a twisting of the board when "connecting", it is called Möbius chess .

Consequences for chess mathematical tasks

For the knight problem there are a much larger number of solutions in cylinder chess than on the normal chessboard. On the other hand, there is no longer a single solution to the problem of women .

Historical

Cylinder chess is very old and was described by the Arab historian Alī Al-Masudi in the 10th century .

See also

Web links