Half-Court Chess
One of my co-workers taught this game to us one day, after getting the description from a
discussion board at the U.S. Chess Federation. We
already had a couple of chessboards available at
work, so we gave it a try and got hooked. One
of the programmers gave the game its name.
The game is played on a 5x5 board, along the lines of
HP-minichess. Each side has
five pawns, and one each of every other piece. The back rows are set up at random as in
Fischer Random Chess,
except that the two sides do not have to be mirrored. A sample game setup might look like
this:
+-------------------+
5 | Q | B | N | R | K |
|---+---+---+---+---|
4 | p | p | p | p | p |
|---+---+---+---+---|
3 | | | | | |
|---+---+---+---+---|
2 | p | p | p | p | p |
|---+---+---+---+---|
1 | N | Q | R | B | K |
+-------------------+
a b c d e
All normal chess rules apply, with one modification. Castling is done by moving the King two
squares toward the rook if possible--one if not--and placing the rook on the side of the
king opposite its previous position. The target squares and any in between must be empty, of
course. The following diagram illustrates:
+-------------------+
5 | | | | K | R |
|---+---+---+---+---|
4 | p | p | p | p | p |
|---+---+---+---+---|
3 | | | | | |
|---+---+---+---+---|
2 | p | p | p | p | p |
|---+---+---+---+---|
1 | | | R | | K |
+-------------------+
a b c d e
In this case, White would castle by moving the King from e1 to c1, and placing the Rook on
d1. Black would castle by swapping the positions of the King and the Rook. Wider initial
placement might result in something like the following:
+-------------------+
5 | R | | | | K |
|---+---+---+---+---|
4 | p | p | p | p | p |
|---+---+---+---+---|
3 | | | | | |
|---+---+---+---+---|
2 | p | p | p | p | p |
|---+---+---+---+---|
1 | K | | | R | |
+-------------------+
a b c d e
In the above case, White castles by moving the King to c1 and the Rook to b1. Black castles
by moving the King to c5 and the Rook to d5.
Games tend to be fast, with the first pawn out normally a sacrifice. The King becomes
much more important in offense, and a passed pawn can be lethal.
Last updated 12 October 1999
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