Back in the late seventies Lake City had a thriving chess club. Approximately twenty players met weekly at the old rec center just off Main Boulevard. I have been trying to resurrect the chess club, but the number of players is miniscule compared to what it once was. We meet at 6:30 PM every Tuesday night at Panera. You are invited.

One recurring problem we have is that an odd number of players show up, and that means that one person has to sit and twiddle his thumbs while everyone else plays. Last week I decided to do something about that problem. I invented a three-player chess game. I know there are already-existing three-player variants of chess, but I find the boards awkward. Especially when pieces are moving through the center of the board, they behave in what I believe to be un-chessic ways. 

My solution was to use the Glinski hexagonal board and put three armies in three of the six corners. We play-tested the game at our last meeting and decided that the Glinski board, with five circles of hexagons, was too small. I went home and added a sixth circle of hexagons, and I think the board is now large enough. Here is the array of the pieces on the enlarged board:

A clearer picture of how the pieces are set up can be found in this diagram:

For clarity, I have left the squares uncolored in the diagram.

The rules are as in orthodox chess, with the differences as follows:

MOVES OF THE PIECES: Instead of a rank and file, hexagonal boards have a file and two 30-degree cants. Thus, a Rook can move in three directions rather than four. The Bishop moves through the corners of the cells in three diagonal directions. The Queen combines the moves of the Rook and Bishop.

                

                 

THE ROOK'S MOVE

THE BISHOP'S MOVE

 

The King moves one cell on the file, cant, or diagonal. There is no castling. Stalemate is a loss for the stalemated player. The Pawn moves one cell forward on the file and captures one cell forward on the cant. The Pawn can make an optional two-cell first move. There is en passant capture. The Knight moves one cell on the file or cant followed by one cell on the diagonal.

MOVES OF THE KING AND PAWN

MOVE OF THE KNIGHT

Because there are three diagonals, the Glinski board has three different colors for the cells. For clarity, we have kept all the cells white in the diagrams.

PLAY OF THE GAME: White moves first and attempts to checkmate either Black or Tan. Tan moves second and attempts to checkmate either White or Black. Black moves last and attempts to checkmate either Tan or White. First player to checkmate an adversary is the winner. The un-checkmated player garners a half point draw.