Space Chess — A Guide to Fairy Chess (Dickins, 1969/71)

This document reproduces pages 16–18 of A Guide to Fairy Chess by A. S. M. Dickins (The Q Press, Richmond, Surrey, 1969; second edition 1971), covering the section on Space Chess in Normal Form. Diagrams 41–45 from the original are not reproduced; their content is described in editorial notes.

B — Three or More-Dimensional Boards: Space Chess

Games or problems on boards of more than two dimensions are grouped in the category Space Chess. According to T. R. Dawson (Chess Amateur, July 1926, p. 315), the idea of chess being played in more than two dimensions has existed since the earliest ages.

The earliest known historical reference is in the Deutsche Schachzeitung 1878, page 117, where Kieseritzky is said to have shown his newly-discovered ‘Cube Chess’ (Kubikschach) to Anderssen at the 1851 London tournament.

More than fifty years later, on the 3rd of March 1907, Dr. Maack of Hamburg conceived the idea of Space Chess (Raumschach) quite independently, and worked out the ‘Normal Form’ of it.

His book Das Schachraumspiel: Dreidimensionales Schachspiel was printed in 1907; Spielregeln zum Raumschach and Raumschach: Einführung in die Spielpraxis followed respectively in 1913 and 1919. He founded the Hamburg Space Chess Club, of which Messrs. Hans Klüver and W. Roese were prominent members. T. R. Dawson published his first three-dimensional problem in the British Chess Magazine in 1915.

Space Chess, Normal Form (a) — Three-Dimensional (S III)

The fullest and most detailed description of Space Chess in English is that given by T. R. Dawson in six consecutive numbers of the Chess Amateur in 1926, beginning in July, in the section ‘Half Hours,’ on page 315 of Vol. XX, and concluding in December on page 93 of Vol. XXI. Another and shorter description by T. R. Dawson can be found in Caissa’s Fairy Tales on page 33, and a very brief compressed version by him is on page 14 of FCR 6/3/Dec. 1945, which omits the Knight. We give here a description based on that given p. 17 by T. R. Dawson in ‘Elements of Fairy Chess,’ FCR 5/5/p.40 and in the 1926 Chess Amateur.

There is also a description in J. Boyer’s Les Jeux d’Echecs Non Orthodoxes on pages 75/76. Boyer says, wrongly, that the pawns can have a double-step first move, but in all T. R. Dawson’s descriptions he makes it quite clear that pawns only have a single-step first move, and hence there are no en passant captures. But a double-step first move may be granted by the composer.

The pieces are the usual ones plus a UNICORN, which is a three-dimensional Bishop.

The Normal Form is played in a 5×5×5 Space Cube of 125 Cells. Each man occupies a cell. The Rook moves through cell faces (side-walls, floor and ceiling) Aa1 to Ab1, Ac1, Ad1, Ae1 or to Aa2, Aa3, Aa4, Aa5 or (like a lift in a five-storey building) to Ba1, Ca1, Da1, Ea1. The Bishop moves through cell edges, Aa1 to Ab2, Ac3, Ad4, Ae5 or to Ba2, Ca3, Da4, Ea5 or to Bb1, Cc1, Dd1, Ee1. The Unicorn (U) moves through cell corners Aa1 to Bb2, Cc3, Dd4, Ee5. The foregoing are all riders, moving any free distance, subject to interference. The Queen combines Rook, Bishop, and Unicorn. The King moves like a Queen, but only single-step moves. The Knight moves on all places like the orthodox Knight, on co-ordinates 1-2, 2-1; from Aa1 it moves to Ab3, Ac2, Ba3, Bc1, Ca2, Cb1. Pawns move rookwise single-steps and capture bishopwise single-steps, always towards their promotion rank, with no double-step first move.

White

K Ac1 ; Q Bc1 ; Rs Aa1, Ae1 ; Bs Ba1, Bd1 ; Us Bb1, Be1 ; Ss Ab1, Ad1 ; Ps A a2, b2, c2, d2, e2 and B a2, b2, c2, d2, e2. WPs promote on E 5th rank.

Black

K Ec5 ; Q Dc5 ; Rs Ea5, Ee5 ; Bs Db5, De5 ; Us Da5, Dd5 ; Ss Eb5, Ed5 ; Ps E a4, b4, c4, d4, e4 and D a4, b4, c4, d4, e4. Bl Ps promote on A 1st rank.

Diagram 41 (not reproduced): Space Model No. 1 — showing the moves of Rook, Bishop, Unicorn, and Knight from Cc3. Total: R+B+U = 52 moves from Cc3.

Diagram 42 (not reproduced): Space Model No. 2 — showing the moves of King and Pawn from Cc3. A White Pawn on Cc3 can move to Cc4 or Dc3, and capture on Cb4, Cd4, Db3, Dc4, or Dd3. That gives 5 captures from Cc3.

Diagram 43 (not reproduced): B. J. da C. Andrade, Chess Amateur, Sept. 1926. Three-dimensional problem; White mates in 2.

Diagram 44 (not reproduced): T. R. Dawson, Chess Amateur, Sept. 1926. Three-dimensional problem; White mates in 2. The Unicorn is represented on the board with an upside-down Knight.

The Space Cube is represented diagrammatically by a column of five diagrams, each 5×5, one above the other on the paper (called a SPACE MODEL), as in the two models, Nos. 41 and 42, which give the full available moves from Cc3 for all men concerned — King and Pawns in No. 42, the others in No. 41.

For the visualisation of the moves, the Bishop can be considered as descending or ascending step-wise down or up a staircase built along the ranks or files (i.e. a two-dimensional move), while the Unicorn descends or ascends step-wise a staircase cutting diagonally through both ranks and files (i.e. a three-dimensional move). Being riders, they may of course descend or ascend several ‘steps’ of the staircase in one move. The Rook has only a one-dimensional move; Bishop and Knight each have only two-dimensional moves; but the King and Queen share some three-dimensional moves with the Unicorn, which has only three-dimensional moves. Nos. 43 and 44 are three-dimensional problems.