Rhombic chess is a chess variant for two players created by Tony Paletta in 1980.^[1][2] The gameboard has an overall hexagonal shape and comprises 72 rhombi in three alternating colors. Each player commands a full set of standard chess pieces.

The game was first published in Chess Spectrum Newsletter 2 by the inventor. It was included in World Game Review No. 10 edited by Michael Keller.^[3]

Game rules

The diagram shows the starting setup. As in standard chess, White moves first and checkmate wins the game. Piece moves are described using two basic types of movement:

• Edgewise—through the common side of adjoining cells. If an edgewise move is more than one step, it continues in a straight line from the side of a cell through its opposite side, the line being orthogonal to these sides.
• Pointwise—through the sharpest corner of a cell, in a straight line to the next cell. (The paths are highlighted on the board by same-colored cells.)

Piece moves

• A rook moves edgewise only.
• A bishop moves pointwise. It can also move one step edgewise.^[a]
• The queen moves as a rook and bishop.
• The king moves one step edgewise or pointwise. There is no castling in rhombic chess.
• A knight moves in the pattern: one step edgewise followed by one step pointwise (or vice versa), away from its starting cell. Like a standard chess knight, it leaps any intervening men.^[2]
• A pawn moves forward one step edgewise, with the option of two steps on its first move. A pawn captures the same as it moves. There is no en passant in rhombic chess. A pawn promotes to any piece other than king when reaching rank i (for White) and rank c (for Black).^[b]

Parachess

Circa 2000, Paletta created Parachess^[c] using the same board geometry but introducing additional ways to move:

These ways to move are highlighted on the board by same-colored cells.

Piece moves

Notes

References

Bibliography

• Pritchard, D. B. (1994). The Encyclopedia of Chess Variants. Games & Puzzles Publications. ISBN 0-9524142-0-1.
• Pritchard, D. B. (2007). Beasley, John (ed.). The Classified Encyclopedia of Chess Variants. John Beasley. ISBN 978-0-9555168-0-1.

External links

• Parachess by Tony Paletta, The Chess Variant Pages