Meridian Chess
introducing the
Meridian
The Meridian is a
bifurcation piece. It can move in two legs, the
first is a diagonal slide, and the second is an orthogonal bounce-move, along
either of two orthogonals in the prolonged movement-direction. It can only
capture like a bishop, by jumping directly to the enemy piece, provided that any
intermediate squares are empty. While the Meridian slides along a diagonal,
several orthogonals (in the prolonged movement direction) could be chosen,
provided that there exist screens for bouncing. The Meridian also bounces
against the side of the board, but this is only geometrically possible when it
moves from one of the extra corner squares, and bounces along the knight file.
The Meridian's value is 3, that is, the same as a bishop or knight. Other rules
are the same as in standard chess, except for the possible promotion to
Meridian. Although the Meridian is dependent on screens for moving it is a
dynamic piece that puts great demands on the chessplayer. The H-shaped board
gives the Meridian good strategical possibilities, avoiding strategical
monotony. The extra corner squares (the trenches) solves the notorious problem
of the weak first rank. The trenches affect the strategy greatly. Meridian
Chess, and the new Meridian piece, were invented by undersigned, October 2006.
The
meridian was a lightly armored gladiator in ancient Rome who fought in
the middle of the day, succeeding the morning performances.
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 You can download my free
Meridian Chess program
here (updated
2007-10-07), but you must own the software
Zillions of Games to be able to
run it. Don't
miss my other
chess variants. |
© M. Winther
(October 2006).
The Meridian can move in two legs,
the first is a diagonal slide and the second is an orthogonal bounce-slide.
Capturing occurs on the first leg (red = capture).
The Meridian's movement principle.
In any of its four diagonal movement directions, there could be many screens to
choose from. The screens, that are used for bouncing, occur anywhere on the
first leg. The red arrow is the capture direction.