Croatian Chess – Hemera’s Dawn

Hemera’s Dawn

Hemera’s Dawn is chess variant which is played on 20 x 20 board, with darkish red-brown and gray fields and bright red and dark gray pieces. In algebraic notation, vertical files are enumerated from ‘a’ to ‘t’, and horizontal ranks are enumerated from ‘1′ to ‘20′. A new piece is introduced, Centaur.

Centaur

Centaur is active piece which moves similarly to Unicorn, only it can continue its jumpy movement until another piece is encountered, or it runs out of board. Note that once in movement, Centaur can not change its heading. In other words, Centaur is bound by both First obstacle rule and Continuation of direction rule.

In algebraic notation, symbol for Centaur is ‘C’.

If located on opposite color field, Centaur moves in short jumps, just like Knight, as is marked yellow on the picture on the left.

If located on own color field, Centaur moves in long jumps, as marked yellow on the next picture bellow.

Note that in either case, Centaur, just as Knight and Unicorn, moves directly from starting location to destination field. No pieces in between those two fields can alter or suppress its movement by its presence alone.

Due to its movement comprised of alternating long and short jumps, Centaur conforms with Continuation of direction rule on both of them, independently. That is to say, at the beginning of movement, player can choose one direction for long jumps, and one direction for shorts jumps. Direction for long jumps is chosen independently of direction for short jumps, and vice versa. Player can then, in a single move, advance Centaur only in those two chosen alternating directions, for as long as it is legal, i.e. it must conform to First obstacle rule, own King must not be left under attack, …

During it’s movement Centaur will alternate field color from which it’ll start it’s next jump. Thus, it’ll also alter in longer or shorter jumps, depending on color of field from which Centaur starts it’s next jump in sequence.

Those alternating jumps comprise a sequence in which destination field of last jump is starting field of the next jump. Regardless of chosen directions, First obstacle rule is applied to those starting/destination fields. So if any of those is owned by opponent’s piece, Centaur can capture that piece, but must stop it’s movement on owned field. Similarly, Centaur can’t claim field if it is owned by own piece, except if it’s passive, in which case Centaur must stop its movement at field owned by said passive piece.

In the example above, dark player has chosen first to move to field 3 fields to the right and 2 fields above starting field, to the field marked by 1. This was also choice made for long jumps in this move for Centaur. Next, dark player choses to move Centaur 2 fields to the left and 1 field up from its new starting location, to the field marked by 2. This also represents choice for all other short jumps of this Centaur in this move.

Now that we have both directions chosen, Centaur can be moved only In those 2 directions, no other directions can be selected in the same move. In the example above, that would mean moving from field marked by 2, which is the same color as dark Centaur, therefore long jump is in order from there. Since direction chosen for long jumps is 3 fields right and 2 fields up, we will end up on field marked 3. Field 3 is field of opposite color, thus short jump must be performed. Direction chosen for short jump is 2 fields to the left and 1 field up, so we will end up on field marked 4. From there, long and short jumps can be performed in alternation for as long as it is legal.

Note that fields on which First obstacle rule are applied are all marked yellow. For example, if light piece would be located on field 3, dark player could capture it with Centaur, but Centaur would have to end its movement at that field. Similarly, dark piece on field 5 would preclude dark Centaur to move past field 4. Exception to this is if that dark piece happens to be passive, in which case Centaur could activate it, but then Centaur would have to end its movement on field 5 previously occupied by dark passive piece.

Initial setup

Initial setup for Light player is (mirrored for Dark one):
PPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPP
TRGMUWCNBQKBNCWUMGRT, or more conveniently, as in this screen-shot:

En passant

En passant is the same as it is in previous variants with the only difference being longer legal advancement of Pawn from its initial position, i.e. up to 8 fields.

Castling

Castling is the same as it is in previous variants. Due to Stars being positioned in the very corners of board, King is able to move only up to 7 fields, not 8 as you’d expect from larger board.

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Croatian Chess – Nineteen

Nineteen

Nineteen is chess variant which is played on 18 x 18 board, with light gold-yellow and white fields and gold-yellow and dark gray pieces. In algebraic notation, vertical files are enumerated from ‘a’ to ‘r’, and horizontal ranks are enumerated from ‘1′ to ‘18′. A new piece is introduced, Star.

Star

Star is a Dormant piece, Teleporting piece, Converting piece, Prohibited piece, which is to say:

• doesn’t ever move
• teleports own pieces which dived in on own side of board
• teleports and converts own pieces which dived in on opponent’s side of board
• Pawn can never be promoted to Star

Teleportation is triggered by piece diving into Star, i.e. when piece moves onto field which is already occupied by Star. King cannot teleport, it is illegal for King, own or opponent’s, to dive into Star.

Own pieces which dive into Star on own side of board are teleported. Own pieces which dive into Star on opponent’s side of board are teleported and converted.

Rule is symmetrical, it works on our opponent as well. Opponent’s pieces which dive into Star on his/her own side of board are teleported. Opponent’s pieces which dive into Star on our side of board are teleported and converted.

Pieces, after teleportation, appears on portal fields next to Star of opposing color to one where teleportation was triggered. If there is empty portal fields around both destination Stars, player can choose at which Star piece will reappear. If there is more then one portal field empty, player can choose on which one piece will reappear. If there is no empty portal fields around those two Stars, teleportation is illegal and thus forbidden.

Piece after teleportation cannot continue its movement, no matter how much moment it was carrying when dived into Star.

Stars are set up as follows: light Stars are located at lower right and upper left corners, dark Stars are located at lower left and upper right corners, when viewing with initial ranks of light figures at bottom and dark figures at top. See initial setup bellow for illustration of this.

One consequence of rules above is that Star is a figure which cannot be captured nor converted, just as King is. Any piece which would attempt to claim field occupied by Star, would be teleported (if on own side of board) or teleported and converted (if on opponent’s side of board).

In algebraic notation, symbol for Star is ‘T’.

In next example, I’ll use short algebraic notation, to speed things up. For details, please see chapter Algebraic notation for details. TODO: FIX LINK !!! .

Star in lower right corner has all of its portal fields occupied, and is effectively blocked, i.e. no piece can reappear in it’s vicinity. Thus all pieces which dives into either dark Star must reappear near Star in upper left corner, either on field a17 or b17, depending on the preference of the player.

Should it be light player’s turn, he/she might consider using Queen to dive dark Root into lower left Star, like this:
Qc3~Wb1~[Ra1*Ra17]
Note that, since dark Rook dived into Star on the light side of board, it gets converted as well into light Rook.

Another possibility for light player is a light Rook to dive into Star, presumably in the lower left corner (by simply doing Ra1*a17). Since that Star is on the light side of the board, light Rook in this case just gets teleported.

Should said Rook dive into Star on the upper left corner, it would end up as a dark Rook, teleported to either dark Star, because Star on the upper left corner is on the opponent’s, dark side of board.

Dark player, if it would be his/her turn, has also a few possibilities. One would be to use Rook in the lower left corner to dive light Queen into Star, like this: [Rb1-b3]~Wc3~[Qa1*b17] Note that light Queen dived on light side of board, and thus was just teleported to a new location.

However, dark player could use the other Rook to the same end, but with vastly different results. For instance, Rook in upper left corner could dive light Queen into Star at upper right corner, which would then not just teleport light Queen, but also convert it, because upper right corner is on dark side of board: [Rb18-b3]~Wc3~[Qr18*Qb17]

There a few other options for both light and dark player. Can you find them all?

Initial setup

Initial setup for Light player is (mirrored for Dark one):
PPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPP
TRGMUWNBQKBNWUMGRT, or more conveniently, as in this screen-shot:

En passant

En passant is the same as it is in previous variants with the only difference being longer legal advancement of Pawn from its initial position, i.e. up to 7 fields.

Castling

Castling is the same as it is in previous variants. Due to Stars being positioned in the very corners of board, Rooks didn’t move relative to King, compared to their initial position in Miranda’s veil variant. Therefore, King is still able to move only up to 6 fields, not 7 as you’d expect from larger board.

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Croatian Chess – Miranda’s veil

Miranda’s veil

Miranda’s veil is chess variant which is played on 16 x 16 board, with white and dark violet fields and pink and very dark violet pieces. In algebraic notation, vertical files are enumerated from ‘a’ to ‘p’, and horizontal ranks are enumerated from ‘1′ to ‘16′. A new piece is introduced, Wave.

Wave

Wave is Passive piece bound by Attacking piece rule and Passive piece movement rule.

That is to say, Wave:

• must be activated to move
• does not attack King, can’t check nor check-mate
• moves as last active piece in cascading ply

Wave is also Weightless piece, Free piece, Transferring piece and, as such, Wave can:

• move to any field regardless of amount of momentum it was given
• move to any unoccupied field regardless of any pieces in-between
• transfer moment it carries, if it’s larger then 0, to any piece, own or opponent’s, except Kings. If there is no moment carried, then no interaction with other pieces can take place at all.

Wave is momentum bearer. Wave does not spend momentum it was given for moving around. Wave, when encounters another piece, can continue movement as if it does not exists. Thus, only borders of board can stop Wave from advancing any further. It is up to player to choose whether Wave interacts with other piece.

Wave can not interact with Kings, neither own nor opponent’s. Interacting with other pieces, i.e. transferring moment Wave carries to other piece is done by capturing field occupied by idle piece, assigning moment Wave carries to it, and then piece in question is obligated to continue movement, taking into account how much momentum it was given to.

In algebraic notation, symbol for Unicorn is ‘U’.

In the contrived example bellow dark Waves could be captured by light Rooks, Bishop and Queen. Light Waves could be activated by the same figures, in which case any of them would receive momentum of 2.

Note that once activated, any light Wave isn’t bound by amount of momentum it’s carrying, so it could cascade movement through dark Waves, which then could either extend the cascade or send over momentum to any light piece, except King.

I’ll use short algebraic notation, to speed things up a bit. Please refer to chapter Algebraic notation for details. TODO: FIX LINK !!!

For instance, one chain could go like this: Qa1~Wa5~Wc5~Re5~Wb5.

Note that last Wave in chain received no momentum from Rook, because that was spent by said Rook for movement. So, that last Wave couldn’t interact with any other piece, e.g. couldn’t activate Rook by doing We3.

Could you find all possible, legal chains shorter then 5 moves?

One of the consequences how rules are designed is that it’s possible not only to chain moves, but to do so back-and-forth, including activating the same piece multiple times during the same ply. Lets take a look. Suppose that you need light Wave from e5 moved to field d2. Easy (target Wave moves has been italicized):
Qa1~We5~We1~Wc3~Be1~Wd2.

Another consequence of rules is that it’s possible to arrange endless chains. For instance:
Qa1{~Wa5~We5~Wa5~We5~Wa5~We5}…,
and now complete sequence in curly braces repeats itself on and on.

There is no safety mechanism build in game mechanics. It’s up to game participants, tournament judges, chess association to come with agreement which will regulate this. It is customary, on tournaments at least, to have some variation on “50 moves” rule. In this case, it might expire in just one ply.

Note also that shouldn’t I insist in writing dark Wave symbol in bold letter, the whole chain could have been written as:
Qa1{~Wa5~We5}… .

Initial setup

Initial setup for Light player is (mirrored for Dark one):
PPPPPPPPPPPPPPPP
RGMUWNBQKBNWUMGR, or more conveniently, as in this screen-shot:

En passant

At this point I firmly believe there is no need to illustrate to you how en passant is performed, or castling, for that matter. The only difference from previous variants is longer legal advancement of Pawn from its initial position, i.e. up to 6 fields.

Castling

Castling is the same as it is in previous variants. Only difference is that, due to larger board, King is able to move further away from its initial position, i.e. up to 6 fields.

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