Modified chess game

Abstract

A chess-like game having pieces and rules similar to conventional chess but which includes a new piece having powers and limitations not present in conventional chess pieces

1 . A method of playing an expanded chess-like game for use by a first player against a second player, comprising the steps of:
 A) providing a game board with alternate light-colored and dark-colored squares, arranged in adjacent vertical and horizontal rows, each of said rows including said alternate light-colored and dark-colored squares, each square offset with respect to the similarly-colored square of the adjacent row, with 80 squares arranged in checkerboard fashion, resembling a conventional chess board or checkerboard but with an additional two columns;   B) providing a plurality of playing pieces, including one set of light-colored pieces for one player and one set of dark-colored pieces for the other player, each set of pieces comprising ten pawns, one king, one queen, two rooks, two bishops, two knights, and two of a new separate game piece, which is visually distinguishable from the others;   C) initially positioning said set of light-colored pieces, at the start of a game, in the first row of ten squares at one end of said game board from left to right in the sequence, rook, one of said separate game pieces, knight, bishop, queen, king, bishop, knight another of said separate game pieces, and rook, and with the light-colored pawns being initially positioned in the adjacent row of ten squares at said end of said game board;   D) initially positioning said set of dark-colored pieces in the row of ten squares at the opposing end of said game board from left to right in the sequence rook, knight, bishop, one of said separate game pieces, said king, said queen, another of said separate game pieces, bishop, knight, and rook, with the corresponding pieces of the two sets being initially located in the same vertical row at its opposite ends of said game board, with the dark-colored pawns being positioned in the adjacent row of ten squares at said opposing end of said game board;   E) formatting predetermined rules of movement for play wherein each of said queens, said bishops, said knights, and said pawns have the same rule of movement as the corresponding piece in orthodox chess;   F) further formatting said predetermined rules of movement for play wherein said separate game piece:
 i) blocks opposing pieces and shields its own like-colored pieces while allowing its own players to pass through the piece, 
 ii) allows its own pieces to bounce off the separate piece and move in a different direction, 
   G) further formatting said predetermined rules of movement for play wherein said set of light-colored pieces and said set of dark-colored pieces operate in said expanded chess-like game according to the rules of orthodox chess governing capture, pawn promotion, check, and checkmate.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1  wherein said new separate game piece is called a beast. 
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 2  including the step of further formatting said predetermined rules of movement wherein the beast;
 A) can be propelled if one of its own pieces lands on a square occupied by a beast; 
 B) can, on the same turn, be sent off the square, moving in the manner of the piece that landed on the square; 
 C) cannot capture or be captured by anything except an opposing beast, with such capturing of an opposing beast being done by leaping over rather than displacement; 
 D) can move one square in any direction to an unoccupied contiguous square; 
 E) can leap over its own or opposing pieces, landing on the square beyond if that square is unoccupied, so that by such leaping:
 i) the beast can move either diagonally or orthogonally, but not both on the same turn, 
 ii) the beast can make successive or multiple leaps on a given turn if able to land on the next unoccupied square with each leap, 
 iii) the beast can move forward, backward, and sideways orthogonally on the same turn or diagonally forward and backward using multiple leaps, 
 iv) the beast can, but is not required to, capture an opposing beast, 
 
 F) can impart enhanced powers and mobility to other pieces of the same color by a technique referred to as pass through whereby the other piece is able to move along the piece's normal line of movement through the beast as if the beast were not there, with the restrictions that:
 i) a king can pass through a beast only when castling, 
 ii) a pawn can pass through a beast only on the pawn's first move, 
 iii) a knight, when moving over a beast, is only making the sort of move it could in standard chess, 
 
 G) can also impart enhanced power and mobility to certain other pieces of the same color by a technique known as bouncing, whereby the piece comes to the square occupied by its own beast and on that turn makes a further move, so that:
 i) a bishop can bounce by coming to the square occupied by one of its beasts and then moving off at a right angle along another diagonal, 
 ii) a knight can bounce by coming to a square occupied by one of its own beasts and then making a further knight move, but not back to the square from where it started, 
 iii) a rook can bounce by coming to a square occupied by one of its own beasts and moving off at a right angle along a rank or file, 
 iv) a queen can bounce by coming to the square occupied by one of its own beasts and then moving off at a right angle (it will be noted that even in bouncing, the queen can move like a bishop or like a rook, but not both ways on the same turn), 
 v) a beast can bounce by moving one square to the square occupied by another beast of the same color and then moving off at a right angle one square, 
 vi) neither pawns nor the king can bounce, 
 vii) a player is able to make only one bounce on a given turn; 
 
 
     
     
         4 . A two-handed chess-type apparatus which comprises:
 A) a game board comprising 80 squares arranged in a checkerboard fashion, resembling a conventional chess or checkerboard, but with an additional two columns;   B) 40 total pieces divided into two individual and contrasting sets of 20 playing pieces, each set containing two unique pieces, referred to as beasts, and other pieces named as in standard chess with powers as in standard chess, but with additional options with regard to castling and also enhanced powers when interacting with the beast; each set thus including:
 i) ten pawns, 
 ii) two knights, 
 iii) two bishops, 
 iv) two rooks, 
 v) one queen, 
 vi) one king, 
 vii) two beasts, and 
 viii) a set of rules which provides that a beast
 a) cannot capture or be captured by anything except an opposing beast, 
 b) can move one square in any direction to an unoccupied square, 
 c) can leap over its own or opposing pieces, landing on the square beyond if that square is unoccupied, 
 d) can by leaping over an opposing beast capture that beast, 
 e) can impart enhanced powers and mobility to other pieces of the same color by a technique referred to as pass through whereby the other piece is able to move along the piece's normal line of movement through the beast as if the beast were not there, 
 f) can also impart enhanced power and mobility to certain other pieces of the same color by a technique known as bouncing, whereby the piece comes to the square occupied by its own beast and on that turn makes a further move. 
 
   
     
     
         5 . Method of playing a chess-type game whereas:
 A) 40 total pieces are divided into two individual and contrasting sets of 20 playing pieces, each set containing two unique pieces, referred to as beasts, and other pieces named as in standard chess with powers as in standard chess, but with additional options with regard to castling and also enhanced powers when interacting with the beast; each set thus including:
 i) ten pawns, 
 ii) two knights, 
 iii) two bishops, 
 iv) two rooks, 
 v) one queen, 
 vi) one king, 
 vii) two beasts, 
 viii) providing a set of rules which:
 a) prevents a beast from being captured by anything except an opposing beast, with such capturing of an opposing beast being done by leaping over rather than displacement, 
 b) permits the beast to move one square in any direction to an unoccupied contiguous square, 
 c) permits the beast to leap over its own or opposing pieces, landing on the square beyond if that square is unoccupied, so that by such leaping
 1) the beast can move either diagonally or orthogonally, but not both on the same turn, 
 2) the beast can make successive or multiple leaps on a given turn if able to land on the next unoccupied square with each leap, 
 3) the beast can move forward, backward, and sideways orthogonally on the same turn or diagonally forward and backward using multiple leaps, 
 
 d) permits the beast to, but is not required to, capture an opposing beast, 
 e) permits the beast to impart enhanced powers and mobility to other pieces of the same color by a technique referred to as pass through whereby the other piece is able to move along the piece's normal line of movement through the beast as if the beast were not there, with the restrictions that:
 1) a king can pass through a beast only when castling, 
 2) a pawn can pass through a beast only on the pawn's first move, 
 3) a knight, when moving over a beast, is really only making the sort of move it could in standard chess, 
 
 f) permits the beast to also impart enhanced power and mobility to certain other pieces of the same color by a technique known as bouncing, whereby the piece comes to the square occupied by its own beast and on that turn makes a further move, so that:
 1) a bishop can bounce by coming to the square occupied by one of its beasts and then moving off at a right angle along another diagonal, 
 2) a knight can bounce by coming to a square occupied by one of its own beasts and then making a further knight move, but not back to the square from where it started, 
 3) a rook can bounce by coming to a square occupied by one of its own beasts and moving off at a right angle along a rank or file, 
 4) a queen can bounce by coming to the square occupied by one of its own beasts and then moving off at a right angle (it will be noted that even in bouncing, the queen can move like a bishop or like a rook, but not both ways on the same turn), 
 5) a beast can bounce by moving one square to the square occupied by another beast of the same color and then moving off at a right angle one square, 
 6) neither pawns nor the king can bounce, 
 7) a player is able to make only one bounce on a given turn; 
 
 
   B) said pieces being placed on a rectangular game board comprising of 80 squares of alternating color, resembling a conventional chess or checkerboard, but with an additional two files/columns, with the starting position of the playing pieces being the same as in conventional chess except that beasts are placed between the rooks and knights, so that for white, starting from the left, and for black, starting from the right, the sequence is rook, beast, knight, bishop, queen, king, bishop, knight, beast, rook and additional pawns placed in front of the beasts;   C) capturing a piece ends a player's turn;   D) said set of rules further providing as in standard chess, a player can castle, but with regard to castling, a player has additional options so that:
 i) if castling queenside, a player can place the king one, two, or three squares from the side of the board with the rook adjacent, and if castling kingside, can place the king one or two squares from the side of the board with the rook adjacent, 
 ii) castling can be done through a beast of the same color, but this is the only time a king can ‘pass through’ a beast and the beast cannot move on that turn, 
 iii) the position of the beast can limit castling options as neither the king nor the rook can occupy the same square as the beast and the rook and king involved in castling must be adjacent at the end of the castling maneuver, 
 iv) a king can pass through a square to castle if a beast of the same color occupies that square even if an opposing piece would otherwise check the king on that square, as the beast occupying the square nullifies the check, 
 v) unless otherwise stated, the said rules providing that the rules of standard chess apply. 
   
     
     
         6 . A chess-like set comprised of:
 A) playing pieces including pawns, a king, a queen, rooks, bishops and knights and opposing playing pieces including pawns, a king, a queen, rooks, bishops and knights that are similar to those in traditional chess;   B) an additional type of piece, referred to as a beast;   C) a playing board in the form of a conventional chess board but with an additional two files or columns so that the board is ten squares wide and eight squares deep; and   D) an initial alignment of the pieces as in conventional chess except that beasts shall be placed between the rooks and knights and additional pawns shall be placed in front of the beasts.   
     
     
         7 . A chess-like game comprising:
 A) a playing board in the form of a conventional chess board and having two additional vertical rows so that the board is ten squares wide and eight squares deep;   B) two conventional sets of pieces, the sets differing from each other by color, each set comprising a king, a queen, two rooks, two bishops, two knights and eight pawns;   C) two additional pieces called beasts and two pawns for each of the sets;   D) an initial setting of the pieces corresponding to that in conventional chess, each of the beasts being set between the rook and knight of its color, each of the additional pawns being set in front of the beast of its color;   E) a set of rules providing:
 i) that the beast being able neither to capture, nor to be captured by, any piece other than the beast of the opposing color; 
 ii) the pieces being able to move through the beast of their color; 
 iii) the pieces other than the beast and knight not being able to move through the beast of the opposing color; 
 iv) the bishop, rook, and queen being able to bounce off of the beast of their color coming to the square occupied by the beast and then further moving at a right angle; and 
 v) the knight being able to bounce off of the beast of its color coming to the square occupied by the beast and then making an additional move.