Sorchess
Sorchess is exquisitely simple to understand, if you are already familiar with Classical Chess.
Sorchess is itself an evolution of Classical Chess whereby the only difference is the implementation of a new piece, known as the Wizard.
Yet what strikes this game apart from other variants that include "extra" pieces, is that Sorchess only includes ONE extra piece, or Wizard, per player.
I have spent decades studying different methods and mechanisms for evolving Chess and, to shorten an eternal story, I unwaveringly agreed with myself in the end that a larger board does not fulfill the game's evolution and likewise any further "pairs" of pieces only contribute to its unfulfillment.
However it was absolutely obvious to me that Classical Chess was missing a new piece and was also in need of a new methodology.
My decision:
Each player has one Wizard, absent from the board at the start, but which may be dropped into play at any moment.
The Wizard piece was originally invented in 1992 by Daniel MacDonald, for his game Omega Chess, another popular Chess variant.
Yet whilst this piece has become immortal in my mind, I have always felt its colour boundness to be, not only a weakness of its footprint, but therefore an illogical trait of character.
Herein, the Sorchess Wizard is itself an evolution of the Omega Wizard, by allowing it to change the square colour by which it is bound.
There are inevitably some rules regarding the Wizard and they are as follows.
- The Wizard moves like an elongated Knight, 3,1 as opposed to 2,1, and ONE square diagonally, in any direction.
- However, the Sorchess Wizard MAY ALSO move ONE square orthogonally WITHOUT CAPTURE, but only ONCE in the game.
- The Wizard makes its first move as though it began on a space occupied by a friendly Rook that has not moved on its own yet. When the Wizard moves onto the board, the Rook remains unaffected. For example, the first move of any game could be 1. Wg4, moving into play from the Rook on h1.
- Unless the Rook has ONLY MOVED to Castle with the King, the Wizard MAY NOT enter the game from the space of a Rook which has MOVED. For example, a White Wizard MAY enter from a Castled Rook on f1 (O-O) or d1 (O-O-O), but MAY NOT enter from that Rook's space once it has moved again.
Promotion
- Pawns MAY promote to a Wizard, but ONLY if the player promoting does not currently have a Wizard on the board. Only ONE Wizard in play, per player, is permitted throughout the game.
- If a player has LOST his Wizard AND also a Knight, then IF the remaining Knight successfully OCCUPIES the opponent King SQUARE (e1/e8), that Knight MAY promote to and thus RESURRECT the captured Wizard.
- Yet should a player forget or choose NOT to promote his last remaining Knight upon FIRST occupying the King square, the player forfeits his right to do so at any later opportunity. Once promoted to a Wizard, the piece may NOT revert back to a Knight.
- A piece MAY promote TWICE. This very rare scenario can happen under the ONE condition that, a Pawn promotes to a Knight, then this Knight promotes to a Wizard.
©2021 S.E. Jepps.
To learn more, for latest news, to discuss or download PDFs, please visit the website, linked below:
www.chec-toe.org/sorchess
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 Simon Edward Jepps.
Last revised by Fergus Duniho.
Web page created: 2021-07-02. Web page last updated: 2021-07-15