A "Friendly" Game of... Chess?
*** STILL UNDER CONSTRUCTION ***
Pieces
Main Pieces
Archer: Moves two spaces diagonally, or makes "rifle captures" at (1,2).
Bodyguard: Moves one or two spaces in any direction. Also has the Hia power: any sliding piece that comes into an adjacent space stops immediately, and can only move one square at a time.
Buffalo: Can make a leap of (1,2)(1,3)(2,3).
Caliph: Moves diagonally like a Bishop, or leaps (1,3) like a Camel.
Dayrider: Can move to any adjacent space, or make repeated 2-step leaps in any direction. (All leaps must be the same direction.)
Displacer Squirrel: Like a regular Squirrel, the Displacer Squirrel can leap to any space two squares away. If there's a friendly piece on that perimeter, the Squirrel may also switch places with it.
Friend: This is the centerpiece of the game. The Friend has no moves of its own, but "borrows" the move of any piece that guards it. It also takes the special powers or properties.
Gerbil: Can leap two spaces diagonally, or (1,4).
Hangman: Moves one square in any direction. Captures by moving directly away from an enemy piece.
Impala: Can leap (1,2)(3,4).
Jellyfish: Moves one square in any direction. Any enemy piece in a neighboring square cannot move. Also, the Jellyfish is poisonous; any piece that captures it (except with a rifle capture) is itself captured.
Midnighter: Moves repeated steps of (1,2)(3,5)(4,5) in the same direction. (It only uses one of those leaps in any given move.)
Mtawala: Moves orthogonally like a Rook, or (2,3) like a Zebra.
Poison: Moves one square orthogonally to capture, or a "lame Knight" move (1,2) without capturing. Also, any piece that captures it, except with a rifle capture, is also captured, because the poison is, well, poisonous.
Samurai: Moves normally like a Knight, on a (1,2) leap. Also can make a "katana capture," leaping (2,6) to capture an enemy piece located at (1,3), though this move can only be used to capture.
Sniper: Moves one square in any direction normally, or two squares without capturing. Also can rifle capture at (0,5) or (2,3).
Pawns
Berolina Pawn
Chicken Pawn
Mecklenbeck Pawn
Patient Pawn
Scorpion Pawn
Standard Pawn
Rules
Because there is no King, there is also no Castling.
Victory is achieved by capturing all four of the opponent's Friends -- or, technically, when the last Friend is in checkmate. Because there are four Friends, "check" does not have to be declared until there's only one left.
Special Abilities
Friend: As mentioned above, a Friend can receive abilities from any piece that guards it -- that is, it would be able to immediately capture any piece that captures the Friend.
A Friend only gets the special initial moves of a Pawn if neither the Pawn granting the ability nor the Friend has moved yet.
Special abilities that the Friend can also receive include the Archer's rifle capture, Bodyguard's Hia power, the Displacer Squirrel's ability to trade places with friendly pieces (though only using the Displacer Squirrel's moves), the Hangman's withdrawing capture, the Jellyfish's immobilizing and poison, the Poison's poison, the Samurai's "katana capture," and the Sniper's rifle capture.
This 'user submitted' page is a collaboration between the posting user and the Chess Variant Pages. Registered contributors to the Chess Variant Pages have the ability to post their own works, subject to review and editing by the Chess Variant Pages Editorial Staff.
By Bob Greenwade.
Last revised by Bob Greenwade.
Web page created: 2023-08-13. Web page last updated: 2023-10-22