A Game Courier Preset for Musketeer Chess

This preset enforces the rules and displays legal moves.

Musketeer Chess

Rules enforced. Legal moves displayed.

NOTICE: The setup shown here has been modified from the original setup thanks to running code for this game. If this game randomizes the setup, then you may expect to see a different setup when you actually play the game.

Welcome to Game Courier, where you can play Musketeer Chess and many other Chess variants through online correspondence.

Rules of Musketeer Chess

Musketeer Chess is invented by Zied Haddad. It is played like Chess except as follows:

1. Before players move any pieces, players select some extra pieces to use in the game.
   1. At the start of the game, White selects an extra piece from a set described below, and Black gets the same extra piece.
   2. Black then selects another piece from the same set, and White gets the same piece. Alternately, Black can reject White's choice, and both sides will get a Cannon and a Leopard as extra pieces.
   3. White then places each of his extra pieces behind a different piece in his back rank. The one restriction to this is that if one piece is placed behind a King, the other may not be placed behind a Rook, and vice versa.
   4. Black then places his extra pieces behind two pieces in his back rank, following the the same restriction.
2. The extra pieces may not move until they are moved to the board.
3. When the original piece on the back rank makes its first move, the piece behind it moves to the vacated space -- unless it is a King moving to escape check without capturing the checking piece. In that case, the piece that was placed behind the King is lost.
4. The corollary to this is that if a piece is captured before it can move, the piece behind it is lost.
5. Besides the pieces a Pawn may normally promote to, it may promote to either of the two extra pieces the two players agreed to use in the game.

Additional Pieces

When choosing extra pieces at the beginning of the game, players may choose from the following:

	Leopard	The Leopard may leap as a Knight or move as a Bishop up to two spaces.
	Cannon	The Cannon may leap one space in any direction (as a Man or non-royal King), two spaces orthogonally (as a Dabbabah), or to the four spaces a Knight can reach by moving away two files horizontally and one rank vertically.
	Unicorn	The Unicorn is the piece also known as the Gnu or Wildebeest. It may leap as a Knight (1+2, 2+1) or as a Camel (1+3, 3+1)
	Dragon	The Dragon is the piece better known as an Amazon. It moves as a Knight, Rook, or Bishop.
	Chancellor	The Chancellor moves as a Rook or Knight.
	Archbishop	The Archbishop moves as a Bishop or Knight.
	Elephant	The Elephant leaps one or two spaces, orthogonally or diagonally, moving as Man or non-royal King, a Dabbabah, or an Alfil.
	Hawk	The Hawk leaps two or three spaces, orthogonally or diagonally.
	Fortress	The Fortress may move as a Bishop up to three spaces, or it may leap two spaces orthogonally (as a Dabbabah), or it may leap to the four spaces a Knight can reach by moving away one file horizontally and two ranks vertically.
	Spider	The Spider may leap as a Knight, or it may leap two spaces orthogonally (as a Dabbabah), or it may move up to two spaces as a Bishop.

The inventor of this game has produced physical pieces, which may be purchased from the House of Staunton. Go to Chess Variant Kits from the House of Staunton for photos and affiliate links that help support this website when you make a purchase through them.

How to Move Pieces

Full Algebraic Notation

Algebraic notation identifies each space by a coordinate that begins with its file label and ends with its rank label. On the Chess board, files go up and down from one player to the other, and ranks go from left to right. In most games, files are represented by letters, and ranks are represented by numbers, but there is no fixed rule requiring this for all games, and some games, such as Shogi, reverse this convention. If you look at the diagram, you will usually see the file labels going from left to right and the file labels going up and down. And if you hover your mouse over a space, you will normally see the name of the coordinate appear in a tooltip.

It is not uncommon to see algebraic notation being used for Chess, but it is often in an abbreviated format that requires you to know both the rules of the game and the current position to know exactly which piece moves where. For example, the notation "Ne6" indicates that a Knight is moving to e6, but it doesn't indicate which Knight, and it doesn't specify where the Knight is coming from. To figure this out, you need to know how a Knight moves and which Knight on the board can make a legal move to e6.

Although rules may be programmed for individual games, Game Courier itself does not know the rules of any game, and it is unable to parse abbreviated algebraic notation. Therefore, it relies on full algebraic notation, which completely specifies the move without requiring any knowledge of the game's rules or the current position. The most usual type of full algebraic notation indicates the piece that is moving by its label, the space it is moving from, and the space it moving to. In Chess, a typical first move might be written as "P e2-e4". When you hover your mouse over a piece, you will normally see the piece label followed by the coordinate for the space, and when you hover it over an empty space, you will normally see the coordinate label. Including the piece label in your notation allows Game Courier to check that the piece you're moving is the right one, and it makes game notation easier to follow, but it is not mandatory.

You may promote a piece by including a promotion move after your regular move. A promotion move has a piece go directly to a coordinate. Here is an example: "p e7-e8; q-e8".

You may remove a piece from a space by adding an @ to the space or by omitting the destination coordinate. For example, both "@-e4" and "e4-" would remove the piece on "e4". This is useful for en passant when you are playing a game that does not handle this automatically. For example, "P d5-e6; e5-" removes the Pawn on e5 after a Pawn moves from d5 to e6.

You will not need to remove spaces for most games, but if you should need to, you can do this by omitting the first coordinate in a move. For example, "-e4" would remove e4 from the board. To add or return a space to the board, you may add an @ or any other piece to it.

Available Pieces

Pieces are represented by labels, usually using uppercase letters for White and lowercase letter for Black. When you enter a move or specify the starting position for a game, you should remember that piece labels are case-sensitive. Many piece sets are available for use with Game Courier, and this table shows you which pieces belong to the piece set you are currently using.

These pieces come from a set containing more pieces, but this preset has had the set of pieces reduced to those used in the game.

Credits

This preset uses the Test settings file for Musketeer Chess, which was made by Fergus Duniho.

Game Courier was created, programmed and written by Fergus Duniho.

Game Courier, Copyright © Fergus Duniho, 2001-2017