Unachess is a chess variant for two players, created in 1995 by Jeff Miller and Edward Jackman. It uses the ordinary chessboard and the ordinary sixteen pieces for each side, but the board starts empty and every piece begins in reserve. On each turn a player must do one of three things: place a piece from hand on an empty square, move a piece already on the board to an empty square, or move a placed piece onto a square occupied by an opposing piece and capture it. Pawns may be entered only on the first four rows, and there is no en passant, castling or double-step pawn move. A king must be placed before its side may make any capture, and until then a piece that attacks the enemy king gives only what the rules call quasi-check: the king is under no compulsion to escape it and may even move into it. The Ludii Portal catalogues Unachess among the chess-family games of replacement capture and checkmate.
Facts
Sport
Game Type (category) Classification
Player Count Connections
Sources
1. Unachess (Ludii Portal)
Category
Board, War, Replacement, Checkmate, Chess
Rules
--- move a previously placed piece onto a square occupied by an opposing piece, capturing it.
Creation date
1995
Derived From: Chess, Description
A version of Chess where all pieces start in reserve.
View the SourceReader Challenges (0)
No disputes yet. Spotted an error or a better source? Open the first one.
Sign in to dispute this or suggest a correction.
View At A Past Year
Choose a year to see this entry's facts and connections as the atlas records them at that moment: what it held then, what it held instead, and what it had not yet adopted. Choose Present for the current record.