Cubic Chess

by Vladimir Pribylinec
(Slovakia)

Cubic Chess follows the normal rules of chess (including castling, check, checkmate, etc.), but with the following special differences:

1. Non-pawn pieces that become captured, are retained by the capturer—unrotated—in an off-board "stock".
   
2. For his move turn, a player may either:
   
   
   
   • make a normal chess move using one of the pieces already on the board or
     
   • rotate any pawn on its square to any piece type contained in the player's "stock". (Rotating the pawn effectively promotes it on its square, and the corresponding piece in the stock is immediately removed from the game.)
     
   
   
3. The Cubic Chess pawn can move one step straight forward, or capture one step diagonally forward, like a normal chess pawn. But it has the following special differences, too:
   
   
   
   • It may move two steps straight forward, or two steps diagonally forward, in a single move, and at any stage (on its initial move, and on any subsequent move).
     
   • The two squares must be unoccupied; the pawn may not "jump" over an intervening piece.
     
   • It does not promote when reaching the last rank.
     
   • There is no en passant capturing in Cubic Chess.
     
   
   

The following is a sample game of Cubic Chess:

1. e2–e4 c7–e5 2. f2–f4 exf4 3. Nf3 e6 4. d2–d4 e6–g4 5. Bxf4 gxf3 6. Qxf3 h7(N) 7. Bc4 Qf6 8. c3 d6 9. 0-0 Nc6 10. Qg3 Nxd4 11. Be3 d6–f4 12. Rxf4 Nf5 13. exf5 Bxf5 14. Bd4 Qd6 15. Rxf5 Qxg3 16. hxg3 b7(Q) 17. c3(B) Ne7 18. Re5 a7–c5 19. Bxc5 f6 20. Re1 Qc7 21. B3b4 Ra5 22. Bxe7 Bxe7 23. Rxe7+ Qxe7 24. Bxe7 g7(R) 25. Bb4 f6(B) 26. Nc3 Bd4+ 27. Kf1 Rf5+ 28. Ke1 Bxc3+ 29. Bxc3 Re7+ 30. Kd1 Rd7+ 31. Kc1 Rc7 32. a2(Q) Rfc5 33. Qa8+ Rc8 34. Qe4+ Kd8 35. Qd4+ Ke8 36. Qxh8+ Nf8 37. g3(Q) R8c6 38. Ra8+ Rc8 39. Qg6+ Kd7 40. Qhg7+ Kd8 41. Qd6+ Nd7 42. Qgxd7# 1–0

Try out this great game of Cubic Chess yourself.

Vladimir has developed other closely related games in addition to Cubic Chess, such as Cubic Checkers.

Cubic Checkers is a game for two players. The game is played with eight white and eight black cubes on a chess board of 8x8 squares. Sides of a cube contain the symbols rook, bishop, knight and pawn. The symbol on the top side of a cube determines it's power, not it's mobility.

Every cube can move along diagonals over any number of squares, forward or backward. While a player has not moved a rook, he or she cannot jump across their opponent's cubes. After a rook is moved, jumping is obligatory.

If a cube's path is blocked by an opponent's cube and the player can jump, he jumps across the opponent's cube to any empty square behind it. The cube that was jumped across is rotated so that it changes it's value as follows: a rook is changed into a bishop, a bishop is changed into a knight, a knight is changed into a pawn and a pawn is removed from the board. If the cube, which jumps in this move, can still jump across another opponet's cube, it must jump across it too. No cube can be jumped across more than once during a move to avoid cycling.

If a player has more than one possible jump, he must choose the move with the maximum number of opponent's cubes to jump across.

When a cube completes it's move, the cube is turned through 90 degrees along the vertical axis to a laying position. It means the cube is pausing and it cannot move in next move. A cube which paused in previous move is turned back to active position.

The winner is the player whose opponent has only three cubes on the board. The game is a draw if both players have moved consecutively ten times without jumping across any cube.