Wildebeest chess

Wildebeest chess is a chess variant created in 1987 by the American games writer R. Wayne Schmittberger. It is played on an enlarged eleven by ten board rather than the standard eight by eight board used in orthodox chess. Beyond the usual chess pieces, each side commands two camels, pieces that leap in an elongated pattern similar to a knight's move but over a longer distance, along with one wildebeest, a single hybrid piece that can move either as a camel or as a knight. Schmittberger designed the variant to balance the number of sliding pieces, the rooks, bishops and queen that move along open lines, against the number of leaping pieces, the knights, camels and wildebeest that jump over other pieces, creating a more even mix of piece movement types than standard chess offers. A further rule change lets a pawn advance any number of open squares within its own half of the board on its first move, rather than being limited to the usual one or two squares. The variant was played regularly by correspondence in the NOST, the Knights of the Square Table, chess club.