Kingsmen
Kingsmen is played on a 9x9 board. The arrangement of the pieces is almost the same as in Bishops Chess, but with 9 Pawns on the third rank.
Setup
Pieces
All the pieces move as in Orthodox Chess, except for the Pawn, which cannot double advance on its first move and hence also without the en passant ability.
Promotion
All pieces except the King promote in the last three ranks, similar to Shogi.
A promoted piece can move one square in any direction like the King in addition to its original moves:
| Pawn | → | Sage |
| Bishop | → | Monk |
| Knight | → | Centaur |
| Rook | → | Admiral |
Rules
Castling
The castling move in Kingsmen is the same as orthodox chess, with the final positions of the King and Rook resembling Queenside castling on either side.
Notes
Kingsmen is an attempt to create a fun chess variant with perfect symmetry. All pawns are protected at the beginning, some by more than one piece. The promotion rules are inspired by Shogi, where all minor pieces promote to a Gold General. In Kingsmen, all pieces gain the King's moveset upon promotion. This is the source of the name Kingsmen.
Play with the ChessCraft app:
Kingsmen Variants:
3x9 board with the strong pieces and King crammed into a 3x3 "castle":
- King flanked by two Rooks in the first rank; usual castling rules apply
- Knights flanked by two Bishops in the second and third ranks
- Regular pieces gain the King's moveset in the last three ranks
Chess with Different Armies variant on a 9x9 board with the Pawns, Bishops, Knights, and Rooks against Ghouls (mirror the Kingsmen Pawns; same moveset), Sorcerers (mirror the Bishops; move and capture as a Ferz or Alfil), Serpents (mirror the Kingsmen Knights; move and capture as a Wazir or Dabbabah), and Voids (mirror the Rooks; move and capture like a Queen, but only up to two squares) led by the royal Dark Knight piece (mirrors the King; moves and captures like a Knight). All non-royal Dark Horde pieces gain the Knight's moveset upon reaching the last three ranks, in parallel with the promotion rules of Kingsmen.
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By Albert Lee.
Last revised by Albert Lee.
Web page created: 2021-06-12. Web page last updated: 2021-06-28