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GUARDENER CHESS
A Chess Variant By Simon Edward JeppsDownload ~ PDF ↷ ⋱
Introduction
Guardener Chess is played on an 8x8+16sq board, whereby an extra 4 squares are extended from each side, creating two extra files and two extra ranks. These are labelled w/z and 0/9.
These extra squares serve not only as a freely augmented arena of play, but called 'Terraces' they serve as special Teleportation platforms whence a Double is rolled with the Dice twice in a row. TWO 4-sided 'pyramidical' or 'rectangular cuboid' Dice are used in this game.
The principle idea behind this game is to create a more directly-interactive and thus a more Classically interesting version of a Western-Chaturanga style gameplay.
In this game, Players can move certain Pieces normally, without the instruction of the Dice, yet whilst others require it, thus allowing for somewhat familiar Opening repertoires and positional interactions.
The OBJECTIVE of the game is to CAPTURE your Opponent's KING. There is NO Check or Check-Mate, however Castling and En-Passant remain Classical features.
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THE GUARDENER
One additional Piece called the 'Guardener' (a compound name of 'gardener' & 'guard') is given to each Player. This Piece sits between d0/9 & e0/9 behind the Player's King & Queen at the beginning of the game & may move/be Captured from EITHER d/e0/9 on/by its FIRST move.- The GUARDENER Moves/Captures ONE square Diagonally OR LEAPS to the 2ND square Orthogonally & is one of THREE Pieces which may ALWAYS MOVE, sans employment of the Dice.
- Thus whilst a colour-bound piece, the Player has the CHOICE unto which colour square his/her Guardener will be bound, upon its first move.
- The Guardener may RESURRECT from Capture whence a Double is rolled TWICE.
- The Guardener Resurrects to ANY VACANT square in the Terrace shown on the Dice. Players may ONLY have the ONE Guardener in play at any time.
THE DICE
TWO 4-sided 'pyramidical' or 'rectangular cuboid' Dice are thus also required for this game, ideally with shaven or thus truncated points for better rolling.The Dice determine which PIECES may Move/Capture ~ The Pawns (up to the center line), King & Guardener MAY ALWAYS be moved, WITHOUT the instruction of the Dice, but ALL these THREE Pieces require their value [ 1 ] shown in order to Capture, or for a Pawn to Move BEYOND the center line.
- Pawns can ONLY MOVE SANS Dice up to the CENTER LINE ~ to move BEYOND the center line, or to CAPTURE, a [ 1 ] must thence be rolled. Once a Pawn has approached the center line it requires its value shown each time to Move from here onwards, just like other regular Pieces.
- Castling of the King is permitted as per Classical Chess rules ONLY whence a [ 4 ] is rolled.
ALL other Pieces may NEITHER Move NOR Capture UNLESS at the instruction of the Dice.
Thus the two 4-sided Dice give you a CHOICE between TWO Pieces with which to Move/Capture ~ or if a Double then ANY Piece.
The values of the Dice and which Pieces they represent, including special functions, are as follows:
- [ 1 ] = Pawn, King or Guardener / May NOW Capture / Pawn may Move past center or thus onwards if passed.
- [ 2 ] = Knight / May Move OR Capture.
- [ 3 ] = Bishop / May Move OR Capture.
- [ 4 ] = Rook / May Move OR Capture / May Castle the King.
- [Double] = Queen or ANY Piece may Move OR Capture / May ROLL AGAIN upon each & every Double given BUT may ONLY move ONCE.
- [Double x2] = ANY Piece may TELEPORT to the given Terrace.
- For example, if a Double [ 3 ] is the result of itself a re-rolled Double, then ANY Piece may TELEPORT to Terrace 3 {T3}. The Teleporting Piece may land to ANY VACANT square within the Terrace ONLY ~ thus NOT Capture until its next move.
- [Double x2] = ANY Piece may TELEPORT to the given Terrace.
IN DEPTH
Diagram Two (D2) demonstrates that, since the Pawns, King & Guardener may move without the instruction of the Dice, Classical Opening scenarios will somewhat develop regardless of the necessity of Dice for Knights, Bishops, Rooks & Queen.
1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 g6 3. Nc3 d5 4. Nf3 Bg7 5. Bg5 O~O
6. Qc2 Nc6 7. e4 dxe4 8. d5 ...
White did not get a [ 2 ] on move 8 and so chose to advance his d-Pawn, likewise returning the 'poke' at Black's own Knight. Remember whilst Pawns CAN move independently of the Dice they CANNOT Capture or Move BEYOND the center line unless a [ 1 ] is given.
8. ... e5
Black similarly holding out for a [ 2 ] or [ 1 ] to Capture, meanwhile pushes his e-Pawn, allowing his Guardener to enter via e7 before possibly onto d6.
9. Gd2 Ge7
Herewith since the Guardener may enter the game from EITHER d/e 0/9, each Player can choose unto which colour square the Guardener will be bound.
10. Nfz4 {T3}
Only in the instance of TELEPORTATION would a Guardener be able to switch colour of square.
See THE DICE section to recap on Teleportation.
Here White chose to Teleport the troubled Knight instead of Capturing with the other so as to double re-Capture chances later with #. Ng3 & prevent #. ... h6.
Remember the GUARDENER Moves/Captures ONE square Diagonally OR LEAPS to the 2ND square Orthogonally.
Therefore in this position, White's Guardener may Move/Capture to d0, d4, e3 & c1. Black's Guardener may Move/Capture to e9 or d6. Should of course their own colour Pieces move or require a re-Capture, then more squares would become available.
The GUARDENER Piece is especially designed to be useful BUT NOT particularly powerful. This is because remember the Guardener can ALWAYS MOVE independently of the Dice and so for this reason the Piece is colour-bound.
However the rule of TELEPORTATION was created in conjunction WITH the Guardener ~ thus not only giving the game an extra element of intrigue but allowing the Guardener to change its own square colour.
RESURRECTION is actually a vital mechanism of the game ~ although a Player still has relatively good chances of Capturing the King WITHOUT a Guardener (since other pieces are much stronger and plentiful), likewise a King may ALWAYS MOVE independently of the Dice whereas other pieces can't and so it can therefore be much harder in some situations to Capture the King without a likewise free-moving Guardener to match.
WALKING THE PLANK
There is the possibility that a Player CANNOT MOVE ~ for example all his Pawns are in gridlock and the only Piece which CAN MOVE is the King BUT ONLY by placing it under DIRECT ATTACK.- PASSING is ONLY allowed ONCE in the game.
- After a Player has used his/her ONE PASS, Passing is thereafter FORBIDDEN in the game and for good reason. This relates again to the fact the Pawns (up to the center line), King & Guardener MAY ALWAYS Move independently of the Dice. The advantage however is neutralised and even reversed if the Piece MUST Move into possible or even probable danger. Forbidding a Player to Pass therefore rebalances the interaction between freely and non-freely moving Pieces.
Yet remember in Guardener Chess there is NO CHECK or CHECK-MATE ~ furthermore there is NO guarantee that any Piece would be able to Capture the King anyway.
Thus instead of Passing one MUST do what is only right, proper and honorary.
You... "walk the plank".
Walking The Plank is where a Player who cannot Pass and cannot Move any Piece except the King, MUST MOVE his King into DIRECT FIRE of an Opponent's Piece and possibly lose the game!
Yet remember, it is quite possible your King will NOT be Captured and in fact, if the King is placed adjacent TO the attacking Piece, the King may well be able to Capture INSTEAD next move.
In truth, if your King is in this scenario anyway then you might not have played very well ~ or your Opponent was very cunning ~ so in any case always plan an escape route!
Should the bizzarest of positions occur where EVEN the KING is likewise surrounded on all sides by Opponent Pieces and CANNOT Capture, then the game is declared a STALE MATE.
I have NEVER seen this happen but... Who knows.
Notation & Notes
The GUARDENER is notated with a "G".Whence communicating through Chess diagrams or computer interfaces, any kind of icon may be used for the Guardener, since even Classically there are no definitive rules.
To notate Teleportation we merely write the Move as if it were usual, followed by the Terrace assignment in brackets. For example, if a Rook Teleported from f8 to w5, we would write #. Rfw5 {T2}.
It is important to note the ORIGIN file/rank of the Rook or Piece Teleporting, unless of course there is only ONE such Rook or Piece in your inventory.
Promotion takes place as per usual upon the 8th Rank ~ however Pawns MAY ONLY PROMOTE to a Piece PREVIOUSLY Captured. There are NO 'Double Queens'.
NOTES
It should be noted that this board design really only works with Dice, since although a 10x8 would be similar, due to the absence of corner sections and thus extra corner Pieces that a 10x8 would provide, some Opening scenarios would play-out to extinction without Dice. For example the Bird's/Dutch Opening 1. f4/...f5 can be met very swiftly by a Bishop to z5/z4 ~ but with Dice such a response is not guaranteed, least of all any Check/Capture of the King.
Also, in Guardener Chess, a preparatory move like #. Nh3/Nh6 to fend off this threatening Bishop makes much more sense than it would on a 10x8 or 8x8 scenario, since A) There wouldn't be such a threat on a 64sq board whilst on a 10x8 other Pieces would provide this support instead and B) Opening repertoires are much more flexible with Dice since there are no guaranteed lines or guaranteed counter-measures.
What this means is that Guardener Chess is really designed for real-life, face-to-face tabletop gameplay ~ and not really correspondence. Sure, a computer interface over a web would allow for long-distance play, but it is very difficult to imagine a system which replicates Dice through letter-based communication.
Unless perhaps a prior agreed selection of several different Dice results over say 35~50 moves were employed ~ then only ONE roll of say TWO 6-sided Dice would be necessary to determine which variation of Dice results will be used throughout the game.
Or better still get a bigger Die! There are many 20-sided Dice on the market which would serve this purpose well and in fact you can get all kinds of Dice now at very affordable prices. The commercial "jargon" for pyramidical Dice is 'D4' ~ this jargon applies similarly to all other Dice, such as; D6, D8, D10, D12, D20, D30... D100... believe it or not they are now making ODD sided Dice like D5, D7, D9 etc..!
Happy rolling.
Summary
I have always loved Chess with Dice and Guardener Chess solves the paradox of how to embrace Ancient Indian inspired play-magic whilst also preserving Western Classical principles.
Especially interesting is how this game can be played solo. I have written about this concept in detail during my seminar of Omechanga.
The Pieces have been provided for, you have been given the grace of which if any Pieces your "opponent" may move in his/her turn. You could call this opponent 'Karma', 'Chaos' or even 'God'.
Yet it is now your choice to decide, given the Pieces shown on the Dice and in all complete honesty, what would be the best move your opponent should make?
A game played with utmost honesty is truly a wondrous spectacle of thine faith. For even as it is yourself who moves the Pieces, it is the spirit of God's laughter that moves the Dice.
Thus... which do you value more, your triumph over truth, or your mutual companionship with God?
The Guardener Chess set you see in the photograph is a modified leather pouch set I bought from Brettspielerey ~ I created the Guardeners myself by de-crowning a King, glueing opposite-dyed wooden semi-spheres on top and finishing with a satin varnish. I likewise improved the print and extended the board by hand with fade-proof Indian inks.
This product you see here is the first experimental set and I think it looks fabulous! They are only small, un-weighted pieces, but they play very firmly considering their leather carpet beneath. Please excuse the anomalies of photography, the squares are actually square as the final photo better represents, although will be finer quality in future production.
I will soon be making more Guardener Chess sets like this from scratch myself, using split leather with similar wooden pieces and of course the 4-sided Dice. I thus hope to perhaps start selling these sets here at Jeppsquare in future, with a choice of rectangular cuboid or classic pyramidical Dice. If you would be interested in seeing how I get on and possibly to purchase, please leave a comment.
Thank you for reading.
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