About Grand Chess

Chess, in its recent form, dates back some 500 years. It was then, in the middle of the renaissance, that someone cared to take a less traditionally preoccupied look at the game of Shatranj, that had come from the Arabic world where it had been played for over a millennium.
The unknown inventor did good work: he liberated the Bishops, who with their two-square diagonal jump had till then led a crippled existence, and gave pawns the right to promote to any piece, where they had been restricted to the Firzan or Minister, a piece of pathetic weakness, able to move only one square diagonally. But he did more. He took this very Firzan and turned it into a piece of unprecedented strength: the Queen, a piece combining the powers of Bishop (a piece he had just 'invented') and Rook. This was a very bold step. We look upon the Queen as well within the boundaries of balance, but 500 years ago her power must have seemed unbridled. The choice of Bishop and Rook is only natural since they follow the basic patterns of the board. Of course he must have been aware of the other combinations.
These other combinations,

and

, have since then led a marginal existence throughout Chess history. They have been described under various names in various variants from as early as the end of the sixteenth century. Even in this century José Raoul Capablanca and Edward Lasker tried to reintroduce the pieces in 'Lasker-Capablanca Chess' which doesn't differ all that much from Grand Chess.
What made me decide to implement the idea yet again was the fact that nobody did a particularly good job.
In Chess as it is played today, the castling rule derives from the fact that Rooks initially are obstructed by their own pawns and pieces. Its easy to get Bishops and Knights out, but without castling, Rooks would be troublesome. Grand Chess was invented a few minutes after I realized that putting all pieces except Rooks on the second rank would solve three problems simultaneously, see diagram.

Initial position.

1. >>>	The board is square. Capablanca and Lasker experimented with a 10x8 board, keeping pawns and pieces on their regular distance. They also tried 10x10, but with pieces on the back rank. To compensate for their lengthy track, pawns were given the option to move three squares initially. Of course they needed the castling rule in both variants, with the Rooks all tucked away.
2. >>>	The pawns keep their regular distance and behaviour.
3. >>>	The Rooks are free from the onset. Of course there's no need for a castling rule. The King's safety would hardly constitute a plausible argument in a Chess game.

From this point on everything followed naturally. I wanted to deviate as little as possible from orthodox Chess, so I 'inserted' the Marshall & Cardinal in the regular order of pieces.
A frequently asked question is: "Why aren't the King and Queen on the centerfiles"? The premiss appears to be that the Queen somehow is 'special'. I fail to see why: it is one of three possible combinations of basic moves. It seems logical that the King should occupy one of the centerfiles and that the three major pieces should join it in the center. In the chosen setup, the pawns in front of the King are very well protected, which seems a good thing considering the fact that there's no castling. A furher correspondence between Grand Chess and Chess is that the Queen and King are on their familiar positions on the d- and e-file respectively. Finally, although the Queen may have the edge in the endgame, the Marshall is arguably the strongest piece, so it flanks the King in the center as does the Queen in Chess.
The Cardinal, despite the fact that it is the weakest of the three major pieces, is the only piece that can checkmate a cornered King without support.

Grand Chess is featured in David Pritchard's The Encyclopedia of Chess Variants (G&P Publications, P.O. Box 20, Godalming, Surrey GU8 4YP, UK. - ISBN 0-9524142-0-1), in R. Wayne Schmittberger's New Rules for Classic Games (John Wiley & Sons, Inc. New York - ISBN 0-471-53621-0), in Games Magazine (January 1987), in Variant Chess (spring 1996, summer 1997) and in Chess Life (august 1997).