the final state of the rules of four dimensional chess

The reader of the following description is expected to be familiar with the rules of standard chess.

The game is played on an 8x8x8x8 board that has alternating colors of cells black and white. The color of any cell can be determined by summing the coordinates: odd cells are black and even cells are white.

The goal is to checkmate the opponent's last king. Kings have immense value to your army's health, however, as they have the power to issue orders to the other pieces (see below). Until the last one is cornered, however, they are captured and removed from the board like any other piece.

The coordinate system is based on ICCF numeric notation (as described in wikipedia) with the addition of two more dimensions. The first two (the familiar) dimensions are File and Rank, which are significant for initial piece position and for orientation. The two new dimensions are called Tier and Step. (view-source to see what they were originally) .

A work in progress gameboard is available at http://www.tipjar.com/games/CHESS/jstable.htmland at the time of this writing it does not show the cannons and missiles as (1) I don't have transparent gif pictures for them and (2) I hadn't settled on their existence or position at the time of last editing the page. The board coloration and coordinate system and placement of all pieces in their initial positions is final though.

With the exception of the new pieces which could not exist on a 2-D board, all pieces move in such a way that were they restricted to a 2-D board, they would move "normally."

The pieces and how they move:

Except for pawns, all pieces move and capture the same way. All standard chess officers begin on the end ranks 1 or 8. Pawns, cannons and missiles start on ranks 2 and 7.

Kings. Kings can move one cell in any of the 80 possible directions, one cell. All kings begin in file 4 or 5 on the opposite color from themselves. A player must move one piece per turn for every king they have on the board (see below). Castling is allowed as in standard chess, and may occur against a rook in a two-cell motion in either one or three directions.

Queens. Queens are "Mad queens" and can move any distance in any of the 80 directions. Queens begin in file 4 or 5 on their own color.

Bishops. Bishops move in the 40 directions that have the same color. That is, they move in directions involving altering an even number of dimensions in their position -- two or four dimensions.

Knights. Knights can move to any cell more than two but less than three cells away by Pythagorean distance calculation.

Rooks. Rooks move in the 40 directions that involve alternating colors of cells, that is, in directions involving altering one or three directions.

Cannons. Cannons, which appear in 3dchess (again, according to wikipedia, where I do all my research) move one cell in one dimension, two in a second, and three in a third, restricted by the offsides rule (see below.) Each side gets four cannons at the pawn rank in front of their rooks at the edges in Phial and Vile, such that the cannons are on the same color as the opposing king (their own color.) Cannons move a total of six cells in any move, so they are bound to one color, like bishops. They are all bound to the same color though.

Missiles are like cannons but they move in all four dimensions, also restricted by the offsides rule. They are in front of the other four quadruple-corner rooks, on the same color as the opposing queens. Kings eligible for castling are therefore invulnerable to missile attack, but they can be got with the cannons.

The offsides rule for movement of cannons and missiles is that cannons or missiles cannot be moved ahead, in Rank, of a player's farthest-forward pawn.

Pawns. Pawns move forward in rank only, but capture to any of the 26 diagonals including a forward move in rank. A pawn's first move may be one or two cells, and the standard en passant rule is available, allowing an opposing pawn to capture a pawn which has done so, as part of the immediately following move.

When a pawn reaches the final rank, it may be promoted to knight, bishop, rook, queen, or king, with executive capability, but not artillery.

Simultaneous movement: Each turn, a player must move one piece for every king he has on the board. Inability to do so constitutes stalemate. Pieces can get out of each others way, but a moved piece only moves once per turn.

It is expected that play of the game will be similar to both players playing 64 simultaneous 2-d games against each other, taking turns making one move on each board, except that the pieces can move between boards, and a player may choose to ignore some boards and use the moves from those boards on other boards he deems more worthy of attention at the moment.

What to call it? Perhaps "Hyperraumschach." I have been calling it "four dimensional chess" or 4-D chess in the months leading to committing this ruleset to my blog.

Board visualization: An 8x8 grid of 8x8 grids is effective for visualizing hyperspace gameboards. There are six ways to divide the dimensions between inner and outer.

Help wanted

Also, to host a computer-computer version, or at least to allow computers and computer-aided humans and humans to all compete on an even field for the title of champion.

I seek help in this area, assistance from competent software engineers, interface designers, marketers, friendly capitalists willing to enter into partnership towards equitable division of the spoils of selling advertising to those who would wish to advertise to the select few who would find participating in or reading about such a game worth their while.

If you are such a person, please contact me.

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