Spherical chess

Chess variants played on spherical boards

Spherical chess is any of several chess variants played on boards composed of fields arranged on the surface of a sphere.

Miller's spherical chess

A variant described by Don Miller in 1965^[1] and later modified by Leo Nadvorney. The fields of the board form eight rings around the sphere each consisting of eight squares and with the fields touching the poles degenerated into spherical triangles.^[2]

Murali's spherical chess

This variant is played on a board obtained by drawing two sets of circles with orthogonal axes of rotation on the sphere. Both players pieces are initially arranged on opposite hemispheres. Each player has a standard set of king, queen, bishop, knight and rook arranged in a square pattern surrounding a central empty square. These pieces are surrounded by 16 pawns in another square layer. Pawns move one field orthogonally away from their initial position with the exception of the four pawns at the four corners of the setup, which have two possible directions. They all capture one field diagonally forward. The other pieces have the moves from standard chess adapted to the spherical geometry. For example, the rook can move any number of fields orthogonally up to one of the "poles" of the grid and continue on the other side of the sphere, except that a "null move" is not allowed. This rule regarding "null move" also applies to the bishop and the queen. Pawns promote when reaching the fields where the opponents pieces other than pawns are initially placed.^[3]

Tuveson and Saul's spherical chess

A variant developed by Jared Tuveson and Lukas Saul. The board has differently shaped fields, some of them being triangles and others squares. Special rules govern the moves of the pieces on the triangular fields.^[4]

References

^ Pritchard, D. B. (2007). The Classified Encyclopedia of Chess Variants (PDF). England: John Beasley. pp. 223–224. ISBN 978-0-9555168-0-1.
^ Castelli, Alessandro. "Spherical chess". The Chess Variant Pages. Retrieved 6 January 2020.
^ Murali, Alavoor Venkatavaradhan (2011). Chess Variants and Games. Mumbai, India: Leadstart Publishing Pvt Ltd. ISBN 978-93-81115-74-9.
^ US application 20030020236A1, Jared Mathew Tuveson & Lukas Amadeo Saul, "Spherical Chess Board", published 30 January 2003

Chess variants (list)

Orthodox rules

Different starting position	Fischer random chess Displacement chess Transcendental chess
Different number of pieces	Dunsany's chess Handicap
Unorthodox board	Balbo's game Circular chess Cylinder chess Double chess Grid chess Hexagonal chess (Cross chess, Masonic chess) Infinite chess Millennium 3D chess Minichess (Los Alamos chess) Rhombic chess Spherical chess Three-dimensional chess Triangular chess

Unorthodox
rules with
traditional
pieces

Standard 8×8 board	Andernach chess Atomic chess Beirut chess Checkless chess Chessplus Circe chess Crazyhouse Cubic chess Dynamo chess Extinction chess Hostage chess Knight relay chess Legan chess Losing chess Madrasi chess Monochromatic chess Patrol chess PlunderChess Portal chess Progressive chess Three-check chess Way of the Knight
Multimove variants	Avalanche chess Kung-Fu Chess Marseillais chess Monster chess Progressive chess
Elements of chance	Dark chess Dice chess Knightmare Chess Kriegspiel Penultima
Unorthodox rules on an unorthodox board	Alice chess Apocalypse Chad Chessence Congo Diplomat chess Dragonfly Jeson Mor Parallel worlds chess Rollerball 5D Chess with Multiverse Time Travel

Unorthodox
rules using
non-traditional
pieces

Standard 8×8 board	Baroque Berolina Chakra Chess with different armies Duell Falcon–hunter chess Grasshopper chess Musketeer chess Pocket mutation chess
Compound pieces	Almost chess Capablanca chess Capablanca random chess Chancellor chess Embassy chess Grand Chess Janus Chess Maharajah and the Sepoys Modern chess Seirawan chess Tutti-frutti chess
Unorthodox boards and pieces	Chesquerque Chess on a really big board Courier-Spiel Dragonchess Gess Omega Chess Stratomic Dekle's triangular chess 2000 A.D. Wildebeest chess Wolf chess

Multiplayer

Inspired games

Chess-related
games

Historical	Chadarangam Chaturaji Chaturanga Courier chess Grant Acedrex Shatranj Short assize Tamerlane chess
Regional	Janggi variants Makruk Senterej Shatar Shogi Chu shogi Dai shogi Other variants Sittuyin Xiangqi Jungle Banqi Manchu chess Game of the Three Kingdoms Game of the Three Friends Game of the Seven Kingdoms Other variants