Modern 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 ...
played on a 9×9 board. The game was invented by Gabriel Vicente Maura in 1968. Besides the usual set of
chess piece
A chess piece, or chessman, is a game piece that is placed on a chessboard to play the game of chess. It can be either White and Black in chess, white or black, and it can be one of six types: King (chess), king, Queen (chess), queen, Rook (chess ...
s, each player has a prime minister and an additional pawn:
: The
prime minister (M) combines powers of a
bishop and a
knight.
The first match was played in Madrid at Escuela de Bellas Artes de San Fernando's cafe on March 18, 1968. The players were Gabriel Vicente Maura himself (White), and Bonifacio Pedraz Cabezas (Black).
Game rules
The starting setup is as shown. All the standard
rules of chess apply, along with the following special rules:
* A player can
castle
A castle is a type of fortified structure built during the Middle Ages predominantly by the nobility or royalty and by military orders. Scholars debate the scope of the word ''castle'', but usually consider it to be the private fortified r ...
either ministerside (notated "0-M-0") or queenside (notated "0-Q-0"); in either case the king slides two squares toward the castling
rook.
* When reaching the final rank,
pawns can
promote to one of the usual pieces or to prime minister.
Optional rule
In response to criticism that bishops are restricted to only one square color, the inventor proposed an optional new rule, if the players agree:
* One bishop may switch its position with a piece adjacent to it, provided that the bishop and the piece adjacent have not yet moved in the game. The switch is counted as a normal move. The notation for the move is B=
djacent piece used for example B=Q for bishop and queen switch, or B=MN for a switch of the bishop and the minister's knight.
According to Ed Friedlander, in the countries where the game is played more commonly, another popular way to create a light square bishop is to require that one of the bishops must move one square orthogonally as its first move.
See also
*
Chancellor Chess – a 9×9 variant featuring one
chancellor
Chancellor ( la, cancellarius) is a title of various official positions in the governments of many nations. The original chancellors were the of Roman courts of justice—ushers, who sat at the or lattice work screens of a basilica or law cou ...
per side
References
Bibliography
*
*
External links
Modern Chessby
Hans Bodlaender, ''
The Chess Variant Pages''
Gabriel Maura's Modern Chessa simple program by Ed Friedlander
( Java)
Gabriel Maura's Modern Chess (Revised)
{{Chess variants
Chess variants
1968 in chess
Board games introduced in 1968