LOADING HST TIME
There are only 10 kinds of people in the world: Those who know binary, and those who don't.
While there are plenty of good websites on chess, this page is dedicated to the various custom ways of playing it that I've come up with. This page assumes you already know the basics of the game.
African Chess is played the same as standard chess but has three custom pieces: the Elephant, the Hippo and the Magpie. I created African Chess when, in the summer of 2010, by brother went on a trip to Africa and brought me back a hand-carved chess set, and some figurines of various African animals.
The Elephant (ȹ) moves exactly two spaces orthagonally (in a straight line), much like a Rook. The Elephant is tipable. It captures the same as it moves.
↑ | |||||||
↑ | |||||||
← | ← | ȹ | → | → | |||
↓ | |||||||
↓ |
↑ | |||||||
← | ȹ | → | |||||
↓ | |||||||
The Hippo (Ȫ) moves exactly two spaces diagonally, much like a Bishop. The Hippo is tipable. It captures the same as it moves.
↖ | ↗ | ||||||
↖ | ↗ | ||||||
Ȫ | |||||||
↙ | ↘ | ||||||
↙ | ↘ |
↖ | ↗ | ||||||
Ȫ | |||||||
↙ | ↘ | ||||||
Magpie (⋈) moves exactly two spaces in any direction -orthagonally or diagonally- but cannot turn. (A Knight moves two spaces and turns.) A Magpie can fly over other pieces. It captures the first space it crosses as it makes a full move.
↖ | ↑ | ↗ | |||||
↖ | ↑ | ↗ | |||||
← | ← | ⋈ | → | → | |||
↙ | ↓ | ↘ | |||||
↙ | ↓ | ↘ |
↖ | ↑ | ↗ | |||||
☠ | ☠ | ☠ | |||||
← | ☠ | ⋈ | ☠ | → | |||
☠ | ☠ | ☠ | |||||
↙ | ↓ | ↘ |
A tipable piece must be tipped before it can be captured. A tipped piece moves one space per turn instead of two. To tip a piece, you make a move that would capture a regular (non-tipping) piece. The aggressive piece is captured by the enemy and the target piece is tipped over on it's side to indicate it is now able to be captured. Tipped pieces cannot capture other pieces, and cannot place a king in check.
If a tipable piece attacks another tipable piece, the attacker is tipped (if it's untipped) or captured if it is tipped.
The African pieces replace the pieces on the left side of the board behind the Pawns. Both sides of the board are identical and as follows:
♖ | ♘ | ♗ | ♕ | ♔ | Ȫ | ȹ | ⋈ |
♙ | ♙ | ♙ | ♙ | ♙ | ♙ | ♙ | ♙ |
♟ | ♟ | ♟ | ♟ | ♟ | ♟ | ♟ | ♟ |
⋈ | ȹ | Ȫ | ♚ | ♛ | ♝ | ♞ | ♜ |
Other than the above listed rules, gameplay proceeds as normal.