Post content:
How to play 3D Chess (Three-dimensional)
3D Chess – Introduction
There are versions of digital chess where it is simulated that the pieces have relief and are in 3D, but I am not here today to talk about that type of chess, since in it the pieces continue to move along a two-dimensional plane. Today I come to talk about one of the many modality that this sport has where The pieces move in three dimensions, and I want to explain a little the movement of each one within this version three dimensional chess.
Board – 3D Chess
The board should be square, but not necessarily 8×8, since you can play, for example, on a 5×5 board with 5 other boards on top (5x5x5). Or only 3 boards (5x5x3), or an 8x8 with 8 boards (8x8x8), or 4x4x4, etc... are just examples, since there is nothing defined about it.
As for the parts:
First, clarify that they all move in the manner corresponding to classic chess when you want to move them in the two-dimensional plane, but they have new movements to move to the other boards.
Rules – 3D Chess
To play this type of chess there is nothing defined in the competitive field, so when it comes to building the scenario it can be done in the way you want.
Scenario – 3D Chess
You can choose the number of squares on each board and the number of boards that are placed on top of each other., You can also choose the number of pieces that will play the game and their initial position., as long as it is a symmetrical initial position when taking into account the two sides of pieces. Furthermore, if square a1 on the bottom board is white, square a1 on the board above must be black, and the square on the next board white again, and so on.
Some examples:
5x5x5
With the kings on the first and fifth boards with the knights, and the queens on the second and fourth with the bishops, in addition to having four rooks and ten pawns.
5x5x3
Where the kings begin the game in corners and opposite boards.
(King, Queen, Rook, Bishop, Knight)
Another 5x5x3 but with a different organization of pieces.
(King, Bishop, Rook, Knight, Queen)
6x6x3
Where all the pieces start on the central board but can also move to the top and bottom.
(In this image you can also see that the middle board should have the squares of the exact opposite color; my mistake)
8x8x2
One player starts on the upper board and another on the lower one, playing with the number of pieces and organization corresponding to classic chess.
(Here I also made a mistake when creating the upper board, since the colors of its squares would have to be exactly the opposite)
Coronation – 3D Chess
One player will start with his pieces on the top board and the other on the bottom board, and To promote a pawn it is mandatory to take it to the line of squares and to the board where the enemy king was, so if you started on the lower board and your opponent started on the upper board, it is not enough to take your pawn to the last row of the lower board, but you must take it to the last row of the upper board.
Check – 3D Chess
Just like in classic chess, a Check situation occurs when a king is threatened to be captured on the next move.
Checkmate – 3D Chess
The Checkmate position on the board occurs when the king has no legal squares to move to; That is, wherever you move you will be captured.
In this sense it is the same as in classical chess, but keep in mind that here the king can raise or lower a board, so it is also necessary to cut off that escape route.
Clock – 3D Chess
Regarding clock time, it is also customizable, but it must be taken into account that games in this mode take more time to be played than in classic chess.
Nomenclature (In Spanish)
When naming the moves, the piece would be named first, then the board number, always being one on the bottom, and then the square to which it has moved.
If we imagine that we are playing on an 8x8x3 board but that all our pieces start on board two, the shepherd's mate would have the following nomenclature:
1. 2e4 2e5 2. A2c4 C2c6 3. D2h5 A2c5 4. D2xf7++
Additionally, when two identical pieces can move to the same square, the column and board from which it comes must be specified.
If two pieces from the same column and the same board can move to the same square, the row and the board are indicated (for example if the pawn on a2 becomes a rook, and it together with the rook on a1 may have moved to the same box)
Castling is indicated by naming the king, followed by a dash, and the rook square.
The only capital letters must be those that refer to the pieces, and the letters in the boxes must always be written in lower case.
Piece Movements in 3 Dimensions
The new movements for each piece are:
Pawn
Pawn moving down
Pawn moving up
Pawn advancing two boards up instead of advancing two steps forward
(You can also advance two boards down)
Capturing diagonally from front to bottom
(You can also capture from the front up)
Capturing diagonally from side to bottom
(You can also capture down right and both ways up as well)
Capturing the step diagonally from the front down
(You can also capture the step up)
Capturing the step diagonally from side to bottom
(You can also capture this way to the right and up)
The possible movements of a pawn (not counting capture while passing)
where the pawn dark green is the initial position, the pawn light green is he normal advance, he yellow is he two step advance as the first move of that pawn, and the roses are the positions where you could move to capture one piece.
Tower
Movement of the tower in the three axes
(It could also move down and back)
Bishop
Simplified bishop movement
(It could move to any of the eight squares surrounding it both above and below, but to reduce movement combinations I want to limit it to only the four squares of the same color above and below diagonally)
Possible moves and invalid moves
Here you can see in yellow the possible movements of the bishop on the board and in red the movements that would also be valid because they follow one another diagonally, but that I prefer to leave out of the game to simplify it a bit.
Horse
Horse movement on the boards
Possible movements of the knight from the central square
Possible moves of the knight from the center of the second board
(Since he can't jump more than two boards)
Lady or Queen
All your possible moves from the square you are on
(The Queen would be the piece green, while the yellow are their movements copying to the Tower and the roses are their movements copying to the Bishop)
Here you can better observe the diagonal movement within a three-dimensional plane
King
It can move only step by step, but I can move in any direction of the three axes.
Castling
If there are no pieces between the King and the Rook that you wish to castle and the movement is not interrupted by the opponent, the King moves two squares towards the direction of the Rook, and this piece stays on the square between the old and the new position of the monarch.
Normal castling, where the King moves two squares towards the Rook on a two-dimensional plane, and the Rook positions itself next to him
A possible three-dimensional castling, where the King advances two squares up, and the Rook positions itself on the last square where the King passed
Again the King moves two squares, and the Rook is placed on the last square the King passed through.
Here it would be possible to castle with the four Towers; This is one of those possible moves
In this type of castling, the King advances two squares in the direction of the Rook, and places himself in front of it, causing the Rook to not need to move when castling is completed.
Here is a castling that would be illegal to carry out, since you can never make this move if the King is in Check or if moving two squares will happen in the middle of a Check
Exactly the same thing happens here: You cannot castle in this situation because the King would go through a Red Bishop Check
And you couldn't castle at this point either since you're in Check, and it's not allowed to defend against Check through castling.
Conclusion – How to play 3D Chess
Playing a type of chess where the pieces have three planes to move and where the rules are so ambiguous and flexible is something quite unusual, but at the same time it turns out to be quite a challenge on an intellectual level, since the pieces have more possible movements , giving checkmate is much more complicated and the number of squares where you can confront your opponent increases considerably.
EN 
ES