Castle Siege Chess

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Castle Siege Chess is played on a custom, unique gameboard named CirSquare 96, which was created by combining/morphing a 6x6 square chess board into the center hole of the circular chess board used for Circular Chess (aka Byzantine Chess). See the image to the right. There are four different Armies (chess piece setups) and two new optional pieces--Archer and Catapult.

Castle Siege Chess is a chess variant invented by Richard G. VanDeventer (who lives in Cary, NC, USA) and released for sale to the public in initial manufactured form in late 2017. The game's initial design was created in 1997 and was entered in the 1999 Chess Variant Pages Large Variant contest as Round Table Chess. Several years later, the name was changed to Castle Siege Chess. One of its variants, Castle Attack Chess, which adds Action cards and Weapons to Castle Siege Chess, was a competitor in the 2018 Mensa Mind Games.

Game description[edit]

Castle Siege Chess is a complimentary game to traditional (orthodox) chess. It provides skilled and novice Chess players with a companion Chess game that offers a unique style of chess, four armies for board setup, and the option to play with two new pieces--Archer and Catapult.

Castle Siege Chess, played on the CirSquare 96 chess board, has many interesting and powerful aspects:

A wide variety of arrangements (Armies) for the power pieces behind Pawn row
More interesting moves for the traditional Chess pieces while still adhering to the basic rules of traditional Chess
Since the chess board is 12 spaces wide, there are 12 Pawns per side
Two new optional Chess pieces - Archer and Catapult
Option to play with four Knights and four Bishops instead of using the Archers and Catapults
An intriguing, quad-fold game board called CirSquare 96 , which has 96 spaces, including 4 triangular spaces, and two castles (starting areas) bounded by castle walls
The ability to attack the opponent's castle (starting area) from three directions: front, left side, and right side
High levels of strategy provided by 50% more playing spaces, 50% more pieces, more avenues of attack, and four triangular spaces (which allow for unusual moves and an extra lane of board coverage)

Game rules[edit]

link=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:CirSquare%2096%20chess%20board%20setup%20used%20with%20Castle%20Siege%20Chess.png|right|thumb|NaNxNaNpx|Castle Siege Chess - Standard Army setup The standard starting setup (Standard Army) is shown in the diagram to the right. Each player places their chess pieces inside their castle, which is bounded by a castle wall in front of Pawn row. Pawns are always placed along the castle wall. The power pieces are placed behind the Pawns and in the same order as those in orthodox chess.

The standard conventions of chess apply
Normal castling (following the 'doglegs' in 'power row')
En passant is optional (must be decided at the beginning of the game)
Pawns promote when they cross the opponent's castle wall
Kings cannot cross a castle wall when in check (which allows them to be cornered on a round board)
Queens, Rooks, and Bishops cannot cross a castle wall(s) more than twice on a single move (which helps keep from being too powerful on a large board)
There are four armies (different arrangements of pieces and optional new pieces)

Visit CastleStrife.com for more details and examples.

New optional pieces - Archer and Catapult[edit]

There are two new optional pieces - Archer and Catapult that can be used to play Castle Siege Chess. Players can use any other variant pieces may happen to have, but they have to provide the rules for using those pieces. The optional pieces are normally placed in the four vacant spaces behind the King and Queen. The Archer and Catapult were designed to perfectly compliment the Knight, Bishop, and Rook. They move exactly the same way, except the Archer moves across opposite corners and the Catapult moves across opposite sides.

Archer

The Archer is a short-range Bishop that can jump. Since arrows travel basically in a straight line over the ground, the Archer can only jump (when it elects to jump) in a straight line across opposite corners. It can only jump over either one or two spaces to move a maximum of 3 spaces from its current position. It can also slide one, two, or three spaces across opposite corners like a Bishop. The Archer can only capture on the second space, so an opponent's piece on either the first or third space is safe. Thus, it moves quite similar to a combination Knight and short-range Bishop. See the graphic to the right that portrays the direction that an Archer moves.

Catapult

The Catapult is short-range Rook that can jump. Since rocks, wood, and fireballs thrown by a Catapult travel basically in a straight line over the ground, the Catapult can only jump (when it elects to jump) in a straight line across opposite sides. It can jump over either one or two spaces to move a maximum of 3 spaces from its current position. It can also slide one, two, or three spaces across opposite sides like a Rook. The Catapult can only capture on the second space, so an opponent's piece on either the first or third space is safe. Thus, it moves quite similar to a combination Knight and short-range Rook. See the graphic to the lower right that portrays the direction that a Catapult moves.

Other board setups[edit]

Besides the Standard Army setup (shown above), there are three other possible army setups:

Power Army The Power Army adds two more Bishops and two more Knights to the Standard Army. (See the graphic to the lower right.)
Super Army The Super Army adds two Archers and two Catapults. (See the graphic to the lower right.)
Ultimate Army The Ultimate Army adds four more power pieces of your choice, in any combination, to the Standard Army and all of the power pieces, including those of the Standard Army, can be placed in any desired arrangement behind Pawn row. The players can either take turns placing one piece at a time in their castle, or an obstacle can be placed between the players so that they cannot see each others castle until the players have arranged all their pieces. (See the sample setup graphic to the lower right which depicts one possible setup of 1,000s of possibilities.)

Games inspired by Castle Siege Chess[edit]

Castle Action Chess—adds Action cards to Castle Siege Chess
Castle Attack Chess—adds Weapons to Castle Action Chess
Castle Challenge Chess—a team game (2 or 3 players per side) which adds everything you need to conduct a medieval war on the CirSquare 96 chess board

Other circular chess games[edit]

Circular Chess—(aka Byzantine Chess) another variant played on a circular board
Diplomat Chess—another variant based on detonation

External links[edit]

Castle Strife Games by Richard G. VanDeventer, Castle Strife Games
Castle Siege Chess by Richard G. VanDeventer, Castle Siege Chess
Castle Action Chess by Richard G. VanDeventer, Castle Action Chess
Castle Attack Chess by Richard G. VanDeventer, Castle Attack Chess
Castle Challenge Chess by Richard G. VanDeventer, Castle Challenge Chess

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