Hyper-Chess

by D. Joseph Creighton <Joe_Creighton@UManitoba.CA>
and Dean K. McNeill

Inspired by the Star Trek Pocketbooks novel My Enemy, My Ally by Diane Duane, copyright © 1984, ISBN 0-671-50285-9, where pieces travel in and out of play through windows in time.


NOTE: This variation of chess was tested through actual play. However, inconsistencies may still be apparent since the testers included only two people. If you have any questions or comments to improve the rules for this variation, please feel free to contact me with your ideas.

Also, this game requires that you have some trust between you and your opponent, especially in the marking of moves on paper.

Please take this game as it is meant - for enjoyment of another variation on the old classic. It is, after all, only a game. :-)


Object: You can win this game in the same way traditional chess is won - through checkmate of your opponent's king.

Equipment: Standard chessboard and playing pieces, two pens, and two sheets of paper.

Set Up: The chessboard should be set up in the manner standard to regular game playing. Each player has a sheet of paper and a pen. Select a player to be white.

Game Play: The actual movements of the pieces is no different than that of standard chess play. The factor which makes this game unique is the element of involving hyperspace - that dimension outside of our own - as a move option.

Each player, before game play begins, chooses anywhere from 1 to 15 pieces for hypertravel. Any combination of different pieces may be used with the exception of the king, which must remain on the board at all times. For our example, there will be 6 pieces chosen for hypertravel: King's Bishop Pawn, King's Knight Pawn, King's Bishop, Queen's Rook Pawn, Queen's Rook, and Queen's Knight.

The next step in the hypertravel selection, is choosing when each piece will leave the board and when each piece will return. Since game moves are recorded sequentially, that is with one player's movement recorded by even numbers and the other's by odd, hypertravel selection is chosen by odd or even numbers. In our example, we will be moving first and thus the moves will be recorded with odd numbers.


(ASCII image)

If we look at the first piece chosen, the King's Bishop Pawn will leave the board on the game's 5th move and return to game play on the 47th move.

When a piece moves off of the board, it will be leaving at a certain position on the board. For this reason, the piece's position at the time of hypertravel must be recorded to ensure that it returns to the exact location at which it left. Thus, a space must be left on the paper to record this. When a piece is moving off the board, it's last position is then filled in, in this case, King's Bishop 4.

Now that the basics of play recording have been covered, here are some other points about playing this game variant:

With all rules regarding hypertravel covered, here are a few suggestions to help you get started:

All of these suggestions are guidelines. With only two people involved in the creation of this game, varying chess abilities was not something that factored into the equation during test games. Most players will develop a set of strategies which work best for them, depending on their playing ability.

Also, it is not stated in the rules how many times a single piece can move into hyperspace. We leave this up to you.


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D. Joseph Creighton <Joe_Creighton@UManitoba.CA>