Hexagonal chess

When the sides of hexagonal cells face the players, pawns typically have one straightforward move direction.

If a variant's gameboard has cell vertices facing the players, pawns typically have two oblique-forward move directions.

The possibility of a hexagon-based board with three-fold rotational symmetry has also resulted in a number of three-player variants.

[1] The first applications of chess on hexagonal boards probably occurred mid-19th century, but two early examples did not include checkmate as the winning objective.

More chess-like games for hexagon-based boards started appearing regularly at the beginning of the 20th century.

Hexagon-celled gameboards have grown in use for strategy games generally; for example, they are popularly used in modern wargaming.

The files are labelled a to i; the oblique ranks running diagonally from 10 to 4 o'clock are numbered 1 to 10.

When a pawn makes a multi-step move, it is subject to being captured en passant.

Castling does not typically increase the king's safety or make the rook more active, but it is present in the game nonetheless, for completeness.

Invented by Helge E. de Vasa in 1953 and first published in Joseph Boyer's Nouveaux Jeux d'Echecs Non-orthodoxes (Paris, 1954).

The rhombus-shaped board comprises 81 cells with initial setup as shown, in the revised form of the game.

Other differences from Gliński's: castling is permitted; kings start on opposite wings of the board; and draws are worth half a point.

Moves can be recorded in long algebraic notation to avoid confusion, for example: 1. d2-f4 rather than 1. df4.

But if the blocking man is a friendly piece the effect is not the same—the pawn is still free to move in the unblocked direction.

These endgame studies apply to Brusky's hexagonal variant: In 1978–79 Dave McCooey and Richard Honeycutt developed another variation of hexagonal chess very similar to Gliński's, having four differences: the starting array (including seven pawns per side instead of nine); the pawn's capturing move; pawns on the f-file are not permitted an initial double step; and stalemate is counted as a draw (players receive half a point).

The f-pawns are also not defended in the opening array, and in fact smothered mate would result if it were captured by a knight, although this possibility would rarely occur in practical play.

[13] The board is a horizontally oriented regular hexagram, consisting of 37 numbered cells.

Due to the small board, games typically finish quicker than in standard chess.

At the beginning of the game, the players place their other pieces alternately on the cells behind their pawns (White: 4, 11, 17, 22, 28; Black: 10, 16, 21, 27, 34).

[15] The board is a regular hexagon with sides of length 6, which consists of 91 cells; however, it is oriented horizontally.

The pawn moves and attacks one step in one of two orthogonally forward directions; there is no initial double-step, nor en passant capture.

[16] Three-Way Chess was designed by Professor Richard Harshman as a neurological experiment.

Each player's third bishop begins in the middle of their second row on a cell matching its own colour.

The version for two and three players uses a regular hexagon with sides of length 6, which consists of 91 cells.

Its two player version uses the same boards as Chexs, the same moves as Gliński's, but McCooey's setup.

Gliński's hexagonal chess , launched in 1949, became popular in Eastern Europe, reaching half a million fans. Three cell colours and three bishops per side are the norm for hexagonal variants.
Rook moves
Bishop moves
Queen moves
King moves
Knight moves
Pawn moves, captures (marked with crosses), promotion cells for White (marked with stars)
Shafran's hexagonal chess, starting position
Castling and en passant capture
de Vasa's hexagonal chess, starting position. This array of pieces on the players' first ranks was first proposed by de Vasa. [ 6 ]
The white pawn on b3, since it has not yet moved, has four move options (green dots) and two ways to capture (red dots). The white pawn on g5 has moved from its initial cell, so has two move options and two ways to capture. If Black moves his f7-pawn to either f6 or f5, White can capture it, for example: 1... f7-f5 2. g5xf6 e.p. In the diagram, White has castled short (0-0) and Black has castled long (0-0-0).
Brusky's hexagonal chess, starting position. The first-rank piece array was first proposed by Helge E. de Vasa (see De Vasa's hexagonal chess ).
The white pawn on c2, since it has not yet moved, has four move options (green dots) and three ways to capture (red dots). The white pawn on i3 has moved from its initial cell, so has two move options and two ways to capture. The white pawn on g5 and black pawn on h6 block each other from any forward moves. But if Black moves his f7-pawn to either f6 or f5, White can capture it, for example: 1... f7-f5 2. g5xf6 e.p.
McCooey's hexagonal chess, starting position
The pawn's move
Starchess, one possible starting position
Pawn moves
King moves
Knight moves
Rook moves
Bishop moves
Queen moves
Three-Way Chess starting positions (Harshman)
Three-Way Chess uses an irregular hexagonal board. Harshman swapped the initial positions of the knights and bishops in the back row so that each player could begin with a bishop on a cell of each colour.