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This page is written by the game's inventor, Aurelian Florea. This game is a favorite of its inventor.

Grand Apothecary Chess-Alert

Setup

The board is 12x12 with 8 brouhaha squares. The ranks are numbered (0),1,2,3,...,11,12,(13) with the parentheses standing for brouhaha squares only. There are in total 14400 initial possible setups. For the purpose of explaining the initial setup pieces are split into 7 categories:

  1. The king - the royal piece of the game. Always starts on  g1 for white and g12 for black.
  2. The regular pawns almost fill up rank 3 for white and rank 10 for black. The exception are the the a and l files.
  3. The berolina pawns occupy the fields a3 and l3 for white, respectively a10 and l1 for black.
  4. The main board fixed pieces. They are four rooks at a2,b1,l2 and k1, two cannons at a1 and l1, and two nightriders at c1 and j1 for white. For black four rooks at a1,b12,l11 and k12, two cannons at a12 and l12, and two nightriders at c12 and j12.
  5. On the brouhaha squares there are two joker at e0 and h0 for white and respectively e13 and a13 for black. Also on the brouhaha squares at f0 and g0 and respectively at f13 and g13 there are two ospreys for each player.
  6. On the fields d1,e1,f1,h1,i1 for white and d12,e12,f12,h12,i12 for black are designated the heavy piece area and are occupied in the initial position at random by a queen, an unicorn, a varan, a valkyrae and a mortar for each respective player. That leads to 120 possibilities.
  7. At rank 2 for white and 11 for black between files b and k inclusively lies the are where lighter pieces lie. They are arranged in pair symmetrical to the middle of the rank. There are 5 such pieces which are arranged randomly on the right side and then symmetrically on the left side of the rank. These pieces are: the bishop, the vulture, the knight, the warlock and the Lyon.

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By Aurelian Florea.

Last revised by Aurelian Florea.


Web page created: 2021-01-29. Web page last updated: 2024-03-27

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