Orthochess
Alternate Names
Typically, Orthochess is simply called Chess, but the prefx ortho- is given to differentiate it from the many ancestral, regional, and modern variations of the game. Acedrex (Old Castilian Spanish), Axedrez (Spanish), Ajedrez (modern Spanish) Xadrez (Portuguese), and Zatrikion (Greek) are all derived from the name for the medieval Arabic game, Shatranj or Chatrang. In the remainder of Europe, Medieval Chess (Shatranj) came to be known by degradations of Shah, the Persian word for 'King': Ludus Scaccorum (Latin), Scacci or Scacchi (Latin and Italian), Escacs (Catalan), Schaken (Dutch), Schach (German), Szachy (Polish), Sahs (Latvian), Skak (Danish), Sjakk (Norwegian), Schack (Swedish), Sakki (Finnish), šah (South Slavic Languages), Sakk (Hungarian), şah (Romanian)
No. of Players
Two
Equipment
A chessboard and the 32 pieces, 16 black and 16 white, are required for play. The chessboard is an 8 x 8 square checkered grid. the two players, sitting at opposite sides, will both have a dark square at their bottom-left hand side.
Pieces
2-D Piece
Number per Player
1
1
2
2
2
8
Name
King
Queen
Rook
Bishop
Knight
Pawn
History
Objective
Play
The pieces are arranged as shown above in the players' back rows. Note that the both kings and both queens commence in the same column.
The movements of the six different kinds of pieces are illustrated below. The blue dots mark the cells where the piece can move if no other pieces (including one's own) are obstructing its route. The Knight, however, can jump over intervening pieces. All pieces capture by replacement.
The King moves one step in any diagonal or orthogonal direction at a time. There is also an additional Castling move, described below.
The very powerful Queen moves as many steps as desired in any orthogonal or diagonal direction.
The Bishop moves as many steps as desired in any diagonal direction.
The Knight moves hippogonally. It may jump over an intervening piece, friendly or opposing.
The Rook moves as many steps as desired orthogonally.
The Pawn moves one step orthogonally forward at a time while capturing one step diagonally forward. On a Pawn's first move, it may also advance two squares forward along it's column, provided that both squares are unoccupied. The Pawn on the right in the diagram above may move orthogonally forward or move diagonally forward to capture Black's Knight. The Pawn also has two special moves: en passant capture and promotion, both described below.
En passant Capture
Pawn Promotion
Check and Checkmate
Strategy
Variations
Progressive Chess
Alice Chess
Chess960
Dunsany's Chess
Sources