The standard square chess field, designed for a game of two people, inspires boredom and despondency on many intellectuals. A chess field intended for a game of three or even four participants will not surprise them. Real chess adherents choose completely different entertainments. For example, a game involving a chess field in the form of a Klein bottle!
In the footsteps of the pioneers of space
For such entertainments, the heroes of the Star Trek space saga and the characters of the novel Moonlight Rainbow, written by our domestic science fiction writer S. Pavlov, passed the minutes . Then, in the eighties of the XX century, many chess players tried to recreate a three-dimensional chess field. The first and main question that they had to solve was the following. How many fields on a chessboard?
With the classic version, everything is crystal clear - 64 black and white cells. But what should look like cells of three-dimensional fields, designed for a one-time game of chess for several party members at once? Enthusiasts for more than several decades have presented a huge number of solutions and variations on this subject. Among them were fields that consisted of honeycombs and cells, elongated, polygonal and even round boards.
First obstacles
In addition to the objective difficulties associated with the very embodiment of the chessboard field, the creators of non-standard modifications experienced many difficulties during the game. So, with an increase in the number of fields, the number of possible variations in the movement of chess pieces changed upward . Their trajectory became more complicated, which led to very unexpected results.
The era of computerization has made adjustments to the world of classical chess. Many hitherto unresolved tasks were brought to their logical conclusion. Fans of extraordinary chess, forgetting about home-made fields, moved closer to computer monitors. Now they have become subject to the choice of the level of difficulty and the maximum number of players.
Chess on a calculator
As for the Soviet intellectuals, they managed to play chess on the first domestic Electronics calculators. These computers were programmed and had their own memory, the volume of which hardly reached one hundred bytes. With the advent of personal computers in every home, a revolution in the world of chess did not happen.
Companies specializing in the manufacture of games did not ignore chess, but these applications were as ordinary and familiar as wooden boards. One checkerboard field had clear parameters that were subject to international classification. It would seem that dreamers and seekers of unusual solutions are again forgotten. But this was not quite so!
The future is real
An extraordinary project appeared, supported by volunteers, which made it possible to realize all the most daring chess fantasies on unusual playing fields. And it’s completely free! The history of its creation begins in 1955, when the experimenters, like many Soviet chess players, again became preoccupied with freedom of choice, previously absent in the chess world.
In total, they created and collected more than six hundred variants of chess fields. Thanks to their efforts, the innovative triangular chess board from the Star Track television epic looks very, very primitive. The initiative group came up with chess on the surface of the ball, playing boards rotating around its axis, fields connected by special corridors.
As a result, the player has to operate not with one classic set of game figures, but with three at once! Chess appeared, which additionally involved a cube, chips and even playing cards. And the game is blind! There are a lot of names of modern chess. Take, for example, Chespeak, Shatrang, Glinsky Chess, Chaturaj, Fisher, Baghouse, etc.
Glinsky Chess
Glinsky Chess is a three-color playing field that consists of ninety-one cells. The party is designed for two players. If you do not take into account that participants are given an extra bishop and a pawn, then the set of game pieces can be called classic. Additional shapes are used on cells of the third color.
Glinsky Chess has gained worldwide recognition in certain circles of chess players. Fans of the variation even established their own federation, in charge of which the organization of international competitions and championships. Currently, the number of members of the federation exceeds five hundred thousand participants.