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:
- The king - the royal piece of the game. Always starts on g1 for white and g12 for black.
- The regular pawns almost fill up rank 3 for white and rank 10 for black. The exception are the the a and l files.There are also 2 pawns on rank 4 on the f and g files.
- The berolina pawns occupy the fields a3,l3,e4 and h4 for white, respectively a10,l10,e9 and h9 for black.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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 kangaroo.This also leads to 120 possiblities.
Pieces
The King moves like an orthodox chess King and it is the royal piece of this game.
The Pawn moves like an orthodox pawn. It can promote at the furthest 3 ranks for each player. On the rank closest to the player it promotes to either bishop, knight, vulture, cannon, Lyon or warlock. On the next rank the pawn can also promote to rook, joker, knightrider or osprey. At the furthest rank the pawn may also promote to queen, Varan, unicorn, mortar, Valkyrie.
The Berolina Pawn is a reverted pawn that moves to the 2 forward fields and caputures ahead. Promotion rules are the same as with the regular pawn.
The Queen is an orthodox chess queen.
The Varan is a knightrider+rook compound piece.
The unicorn is a knightrider+ bishop compound piece.
The mortar is a Rook+Chinese Cannon+ferz compound piece.
The Valkyrie is a bishop+ vulture compound piece (the vulture is a 41&43 path mover).
The rook is an orthodox chess rook.
The knightrider is a knight that may continue by repeating the first move.
The joker does not have a move of it's own. Instead it copies the last move of the opponent.
The osprey is a bent rider. Starts as a dabbabah and then continues towards outside like a bishop.
The cannon is the cannon from Xiangqi. It moves like a rook but captures by hoping over a piece called platform.
The bishop is a regular chess bishop.
The Vulture is a path mover akin to the falcon piece in falcon chess, but it's destinations are the 41&43 squares away from the piece.
The knight moves and captures like a regular knight but it can also move (but not capture) with a camel (3,1) leap
The kangaroo step one step diagonally or jumps 2 or three steps orthogonally.
The Warlock steps one step orthogonally orj jumps like a zebra (3,2). .
Rules
By far the main difference between the rules of classic chess and the rules of grand apothecary chess-alert is that grand apothecary chess-alert has five instead of three possible outcomes:
1. win - obtained through checkmating your opponent which worths 1 tournament point
2. advantage - obtained through stalemating your opponent or having at least 4 extra points in the points counting process (see bellow); worths 0.75 tournament points
3. draw - obtained through double bare kings or through having at most 3 ahead points in the points counting process (see bellow); worths 0.5 tournament points
4. disadvantage- when your opponent finishes at an advantage; still worths 0.25 tournament points
5. loss - you got checkmated
At any time players may give up (loss) or convene at a draw or advantage/disadvantage.
Point count occurs in two situations:
1. The 150 moves rule takes charge (akin to the 50th moves rule of orthodox chess but after 150 moves) i.e. 150 moves have taken place and no captures or pawn pushes happened.
2. An position has been repeated three times.
With the purpose of explaining the points count pieces are split into 5 categories:
1.Heavy Pieces: Queen, Varan, Unicorn, Mortar and Valkyrie - they worth 9 points in the points count.
2.Average Pieces: Vulture, Rook, Knightrider and Osprey- they worth 6 points in the points count
3.The joker - worth 5 points if the opponent has exactly more heavy pieces than non-heavy pieces, 4 points otherwise
4. Light pieces: Bishop, Knight, Cannon, Warlock and Kangaroo - they worth 3 points in the points count
5. Pawns: Regular Pawns and berolina pawns- they worth 1 point in the points count
In this game there are 4 different castling moves:
1. Long Rook Castling- King slides 3 squares on the bottom rank and the rook jumps imideatly on the other side of the king
2. Short Rook Castling- King slides 2 squares on the bottom rank and the rook jumps imideatly on the other side of the king
3. Long Cannon Castling- King slides 4 squares on the bottom rank and the cannon jumps imideatly on the other side of the king
4. Short Cannon Castling- King Slides 3 sqaures on the bottom rank and the cannon jumps imideatly on the other side of the king
The usual castling restrictions apply.
The en passant rule is as usual only that pawns may move an arbirary number of squares until the middle of the board. The 50 moves rule becomes a 150 moves rule. The brouhaha sqares disapear after they have been vacated. Captures may happen on the brouhaha squares and that preserves them.
At the beginning of the game the joker does not inherit any move because there have not been any moves. That means white cannot move it's joker at the first move. Black may imitate the move made in the same turn on it's first move.
A joker imitating a pawn has only the regular moves, no double step, no enpassant and no promotion even if that pawn has promoted the last move.
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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