Cylinder chess (or cylindrical chess) is a
chess variant
A chess variant is a game related to, derived from, or inspired by chess. Such variants can differ from chess in many different ways.
"International" or "Western" chess itself is one of a family of games which have related origins and could be co ...
. The game is played as if the board were a
cylinder
A cylinder (from ) has traditionally been a three-dimensional solid, one of the most basic of curvilinear geometric shapes. In elementary geometry, it is considered a prism with a circle as its base.
A cylinder may also be defined as an infin ...
, with the left side of the board joined to the right side. Cylinder chess is one of six chess variants described by the Arabic historian
Ali al-Masudi
Al-Mas'udi ( ar, أَبُو ٱلْحَسَن عَلِيّ ٱبْن ٱلْحُسَيْن ٱبْن عَلِيّ ٱلْمَسْعُودِيّ, '; –956) was an Arab historian, geographer and traveler. He is sometimes referred to as the "Herodotus ...
in 947.
The cylindrical board is used in some
chess problems
A chess problem, also called a chess composition, is a puzzle set by the composer using chess pieces on a chess board, which presents the solver with a particular task. For instance, a position may be given with the instruction that White is to ...
.
Rules and gameplay
The game is played as if the left and right sides of the board are connected. When a
piece
Piece or Pieces (not to be confused with peace) may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Games
* Piece (chess), pieces deployed on a chessboard for playing the game of chess
* ''Pieces'' (video game), a 1994 puzzle game for the Super NES
* ...
goes off one edge of the board, it reappears from the other edge. For example, it is legal to move a rook from a3 to h3, even if there is a piece on b3, since the rook can move left from a3; a bishop on c1 can move to h4 by going from c1 to a3, and then going up and left from a3 to h4; if White has a pawn on a5, Black has a pawn on h7 and Black plays 1...h7–h5, White can capture the black pawn ''
en passant
''En passant'' (, "in passing") is a method of capturing in chess that occurs when a pawn captures a horizontally adjacent enemy pawn that has just made an initial two-square advance. The capturing pawn moves to the square that the enemy paw ...
'' with 2.axh6; and so on.
The game is sometimes played with the rules of
castling
Castling is a move in chess. It consists of moving the king two squares toward a rook on the same and then moving the rook to the square that the king passed over. Castling is permitted only if neither the king nor the rook has previously moved ...
changed in one of the following ways:
* Castling is not allowed. Proponents of this convention argue that the purpose of castling is nullified due to all files being equally dangerous, as they are on a cylinder.
* In addition to normal castling, castling with a rook over the board edge is also allowed. This is done by moving the king two squares toward the rook and moving the rook to the square that the king passed over (in the same manner as usual).
Some cylinder chess problems allow ''null moves'', or moves such that every piece stays in the same place, as long as any piece performing such a move travels a nonzero distance by crossing over the edge of the board. However, most actual games of cylinder chess disallow null moves.
Strategy
In cylinder chess, the traditional hierarchy of piece strengths is changed, with bishops being significantly stronger than knights. The knight and rook do not gain much more power from the cylindrical board, but bishops and especially queens become stronger. The center squares are unimportant to control, and moving a pawn to the center in the opening is very weakening because it opens the player's center to attacks by the opponent's bishops, which have been allowed faster access to the flank squares.
Cylinder chess also has different endgames than standard chess. For example, unlike in standard chess, a king and rook cannot force checkmate against a lone king on the cylindrical board.
Piece values according to H. G. Muller are as follows:
In chess problems
The diagram shows a cylinder chess problem that allows null moves. The move 1.Rg4, threatening 2.Rg5#, fails due to 1...Ka5. The solution is to put Black in
zugzwang
Zugzwang (German for "compulsion to move", ) is a situation found in chess and other turn-based games wherein one player is put at a disadvantage because of their obligation to make a move; a player is said to be "in zugzwang" when any legal move ...
by playing 1.Rh4, moving the rook on h4 to its own square; now, after either 1...Ka5 or 1...c4, 2.R4h5# is mate.
Related variants
In horizontal cylinder chess, the first and last ranks of the chessboard are connected. In toroidal chess, the board has the form of a
torus
In geometry, a torus (plural tori, colloquially donut or doughnut) is a surface of revolution generated by revolving a circle in three-dimensional space about an axis that is coplanar with the circle.
If the axis of revolution does not tou ...
. A toroidal board can be formed by connecting the first and last ranks of the cylindrical board.
Horizontal cylinder chess and toroidal chess, unlike cylinder chess, cannot use the starting position of standard chess; otherwise, both kings will begin the game in checkmate. The adjacent diagram shows the starting position for toroidal chess on a standard board. In the starting setup, the rooks protect each other while being threatened by the opponent's rooks. They are supported by the knights on the sides of the board, making their positions more defensible.
On the toroidal board, checkmate is impossible with king and queen versus king,
[Е.Я. Гик, ''Шахматы и математика'', Наука, Москва, 1983 (in Russian)] but it is possible with king and two rooks versus king.
Notes
References
External links
Cylinder Chessby George Jelliss, ''
Variant Chess
David Brine Pritchard (19 October 1919 – 12 December 2005)''David Pritchard.'' The Times (London). Features; p. 66. 17 January 2006. was a British chess player, chess writer and indoor games consultant. He gained pre-eminence as an indoor game ...
'', Volume 3, Issue 22, Winter 1996–67, pages 32–33.
Cylindrical chessby Ron Porter and Cliff Lundberg.
BrainKing.comInternet server for playing Cylinder chess and many other chess variants
by Karl Fischer
a simple program by Ed Friedlander
(Java
Java (; id, Jawa, ; jv, ꦗꦮ; su, ) is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea to the north. With a population of 151.6 million people, Java is the world's List ...
)
{{Chess variants, state=collapsed
Chess variants
Chess problems
Fairy chess