Doublecannon Chess (8x10)
a big-board variant with Doublecannons
The Doublecannon is a
bifurcation piece. It slides like a rook.
Following the orthogonal move, it can make a capture by jumping diagonally
over a piece of any colour, and land on an enemy piece positioned anywhere on
the diagonal behind the jumped piece, provided that any intermediate squares are
empty. The jump is performed in the prolonged movement direction only (two
direction alternatives). While the Doublecannon slides along an orthogonal,
several diagonals (in the prolonged movement direction) could be chosen. This
makes it a quite dangerous cannon piece. The Doublecannon's value is 4, that is,
between bishop and rook (preliminary estimate). Otherwise the rules are the same
as in standard chess, except for the possible promotion to Doublecannon.
Although
the Doublecannon loses 'screens' for jumping when the pieces become fewer, it
becomes more mobile when the orthogonals are cleared from pieces. Thus it often
retains its value in the endgame. Note that the Doublecannon can have a big
influence from behind the friendly pawn chain, especially if it can slide along
the first rank. The Doublecannon has two main weaknesses. It cannot, together
with the friendly king, give mate to the enemy king. Another weakness is that it
can easily get trapped. It is even easier to trap a Doublecannon than a rook,
while the Doublecannon cannot capture orthogonally. On the other hand, the
tactical capability of this piece is breathtaking. It is much more valuable than
the Chinese Cannon. Therefore it is easily integrable with the powerful pieces
of the Western piece set.
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 You
can download my free Doublecannon Chess (8x10) program
here (updated
2007-11-07), but you must own the software
Zillions of Games to be able to
run it. Don't
miss my other
chess variants. |
© M. Winther (August 2006).
Doublecannons move in two legs, the first is an
orthogonal slide and the second is a diagonal 'cannon' capture-jump, which is
optional. The rook cannot be captured because it is not in the prolonged
movement direction. Although the Doublecannon is a heavy piece it seldom has
such good opportunities as in the image.
The Doublecannons's capture principle. In any of
its four orthogonal movement directions, there could be many screens to choose
from. The screens occur anywhere on the second leg. Compare with the Chinese
cannon's capture principle below.
Chinese cannon: the screen occurs anywhere on the
one leg. (Movement occurs in four directions.)