They're changing guard at Buckingham Palace -
Christopher Robin went down with Alice.
Alice is marrying one of the guard.
"A soldier's life is terrible hard,"
Says Alice.
(from the poem "Buckingham Palace" by Alan Alexander Milne)
Description
This variant takes the main theme from King's Guard Chess and applies it to Alice Chess. Thus we have pieces which may capture if supported and pieces which may support but cannot capture.
| Initial Position | FirstTurn | Second Turn |
|---|---|---|
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The game is played across three 8x8 boards with each player starting with two full chess sets:
- the Home or Supporting set - this starts on the Home board and contains the royal King;
- the Guard or Capturing set - this starts on the Guard board and contains a non-royal "King" known as a Guard.
The opening array is shown in the left-most image above. Each player has their home board in front of them containing their Supporting set. Between the two Home boards sits the Guard board containing both players' Capturing set. The movement rules for Alice Chess apply with the Capturing and Turn Order modifications mentioned below. The Parton destination from a Home board is on the Guard board; from the Guard board it is on either Home board.
The central image above shows the position after both players have had their first turn:
- White has moved a Guard-Pawn from eg2 via eg4 to ew4.
- Blue has moved a Home-Pawn from eb7 via eb5 to eg5, and a Guard-Knight from gg8 via fg6 to fw6.
The right-most image above shows the position after the second turn by both players:
- White - Home-Pawn dw2-dw4-dg4 : Guard-Bishop gg1-bg5-bb5
- Blue - Home-Queen db8-hb4-hg4 : Guard-Knight fw6xew4-eg4 (see Capturing below)
Capturing
In addition to the Parton destination being empty, when capturing it must also be defended by at least one piece from the capturing player's Supporting set.
Turn Order
There are 2 players, White and Blue. White moves first
In each turn, except White's first, a player must firstly move a piece from their Supporting set, then secondly a piece from their Capturing set. White's first turn consists of moving a single piece from the Capturing set.
Clarifications
- The aim is to capture the enemy King.
- Stalemate is a loss for the stalemated player.
- Pawns have an initial double move.
- Pawns promote to a non-royal Piece of the same set on reaching the furthest rank (rank 8 for White, rank 1 for Blue) of any board.
- There is no castling nor en-passant capture.
Play
There is a Game Courier pre-set available here.
