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Yalta. A three player chess variant. (Cells: 96) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
Anon wrote on Tue, Nov 22, 2011 04:33 PM UTC:Average ★★★
The game comes from the Yalta conference after WW2. It was invented to
reflect the three way fight between the USA, Britain and Russia. 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yalta_Conference

(zzo38) A. Black wrote on Tue, Jul 30, 2013 05:09 AM UTC:

The rules should be made more exact rather than "All disagreements at the table (about the rules) are solved by casting votes among the three participants."

Here are some of my ideas about the movements (I don't know if they are correct):

  • Orthogonally is to a cell sharing an edge and having a different color.
  • Diagonally is to a cell sharing a corner but not an edge, and having the same color.
  • The forward lines for red are: QR1-QR2-QR3-QR4-KR4-KR3-KR2-KR1, QN1-QN2-QN3-QN4-KN4-KN3-KN2-KN1, QB1-QB2-QB3-QB4-KB4-KB3-KB2-KB1, Q1-Q2-Q3-Q4-K4-K3-K2-K1, K1-K2-K3-K4-Q4-Q3-Q2-Q1, KB1-KB2-KB3-KB4-QB4-QB3-QB2-QB1, KN1-KN2-KN3-KN4-QN4-QN3-QN2-QN1, KR1-KR2-KR3-KR4-QR4-QR3-QR2-QR1, Q4-Q3-Q2-Q1, QB4-QB3-QB2-QB1, QN4-QN3-QN2-QN1, QR4-QR3-QR2-QR1, K4-K3-K2-K1, KB4-KB3-KB2-KB1, KN4-KN3-KN2-KN1, KR4-KR3-KR2-KR1.
  • Knight moves one space orthogonally followed by one space diagonally, jumping over whatever is in between, but cannot land on a cell orthogonally adjacent to the cell it is moving from. (Example: a knight on K4 may move to QB3, Q2, KB2, KN3, QN4, QB3, K3, Q4, and KB4.)
  • A diagonally forward move (for pawn captures) is a diagonal cell which is the forward cell of a orthogonally adjcent cell and which is also orthogonally adjacent to the forward cell. (Example: a red pawn on K4 can capture on QB3 but not on K4; a red pawn on Q4 may capture on K3 and QB3.)
  • Note that K4 isn't adjacent to Q4 (it doesn't meet the definitions above), so only knights can move from one to the other.
  • A move from Y to Z is in the same direction as a move from X to Y iff all of the following conditions hold:
    1. X isn't adjacent to Z.
    2. X, Y, and Z are all different cells.
    3. X and Z must touch opposite sides/corners of Y.

Here are some of my other ideas of rules (some of which differ from the article and/or comments):

  • A pawn promotes if there is no more cells directly forward of it.
  • There is no check (this also means you are allowed to castle through check, and move into check, etc).
  • If you capture a king, all other pieces of the same color as the king change to your color, except for pawns, which are removed.
  • If all pieces are one color that player wins.
  • You may pass if you have no legal moves, but if there are two successive passes (not three) then the game ends in a draw; if one player is already eliminated, that player still loses though.


Colin Rowat wrote on Sat, Nov 9, 2019 12:12 PM UTC:
  1. how does Yalta compare to other three-player chess variants?  (I'd come across it as a teen, so have a soft spot for it.  It also looks like a more direct extension of two-player chess than some others that I've seen - which I also like.)
  2. is there anyone who makes Yalta chess mats?

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