Omega chess
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Omega Chess is a commercial chess variant designed by Daniel McDonald in Toronto. The game is played on a 10x10 board with an extra square dangling off each of the four corners for the wizards. The game is laid out like regular chess with the addition of a "champion" in the corner and a "wizard" diagonally behind each champion (see diagram on right).
The champion moves one or two spaces horizontally or vertically or two spaces diagonally. The champion may jump when moving two squares. The wizard moves either like a 3x1 knight (instead of a normal 2x1 knight) or one space diagonally. The rules are otherwise the same, except that on a pawn's first move, it may move one, two, or three squares forward, as opposed to only one or two in standard chess. In the case of three moves forward, there are two squares from which an opposing pawn may make an en passant capture.
Part of the reason for adding the new pieces was to equalize the number of jumping pieces with sliding pieces. There have also been a number of endorsements by grandmasters including Michael Rohde and Alex Sherzer.
External Link
- Omega Chess (http://www.omegachess.com/) - commercial web site.