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 | → | Crowned Pawn |
| Bishop | → | Crowned Bishop |
| Knight | → | Crowned Knight |
| Rook | → | Crowned Rook |
The promoted crowned pieces are non-royal and can be captured like any regular piece.
Rules
The rules are the same as in Chess except regarding promotion, as described above. As in Chess, the King moves two spaces toward the Rook to castle. Because of the wider board, though, castling works like Queenside castling on each 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.
How to play using readily available board and pieces:
You will need:
- 1 x Shogi set
- 2 x Chess & Checkers set
Place the chess pieces on the shogi board as in the diagram above. When a regular chess piece is promoted, mount it on a flat checker piece. You can secure them using commercially available modeling clay.
Play with Zillions of Games:
Play with the ChessCraft Android app:
(Sage=Crowned Pawn, Monk=Crowned Bishop, Centaur=Crowned Knight, Admiral=Crowned Rook)
Kingsmen Variants:
3x9 board with the strong pieces and King crammed into a 3x3 "castle":
Regular pieces gain the King's moveset upon reaching the last three ranks as in Kingsmen. The King can castle with either Rook by simpy swapping positions (usual castling rules apply).
Chess with Different Armies variant on a 9x9 board with the regular Kingsmen army against a Dark Horde army consisting of:
- Ghouls (mirror the Kingsmen Pawns; same moveset)
- Sorcerers (mirror the Kingsmen Bishops; move and capture as a Ferz or Alfil)
- Serpents (mirror the Kingsmen Knights; move and capture as a Wazir or Dabbabah)
- Voids (mirror the Kingsmen Rooks; move and capture like a Queen, but only up to two squares)
- Dark Knight (royal piece and 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