// Variant · V

De Vasa's Variant

A hexagonal chess on a rhombus — 81 cells arranged as a 9×9 parallelogram of hexes. All pieces move exactly as in Brusky's variant, on a very different-shaped board.

The Board

The 81-cell diamond has nine files (a–i) and nine ranks (1–9). Every hex on the rhombus is playable — no missing corners. White starts on ranks 1–2, Black on ranks 8–9.

Setup

White's back rank (rank 1) reads, from left to right: R N B K B Q B N R. Black's back rank (rank 9) is the mirror — R N B Q B K B N R — so the two kings start at opposite ends of the board: White's on file d, Black's on file f, with the queens facing them. The three bishops sit on files c, e, and g — one bishop per hex colour, matching classical hexagonal-chess convention.

Nine pawns start on the third rank, two steps ahead of the back-rank pieces.

Movement

Rook

Slides any distance along the six orthogonal directions — edge to edge.

Bishop

Slides any distance along the six hex diagonals, locked to one of the three board colours.

Queen

Rook plus bishop — twelve directions in total.

King

One hex in any of the twelve directions, never into check.

Knight

Two hexes in one orthogonal direction, then one at 60° — twelve destinations, jumping over anything in between.

Pawn (White)

Moves to either forward neighbour and captures only on the two slanted diagonals — never on the diagonal directly ahead. Each forward square is independent: a blocker on one does not freeze the pawn.

Every piece moves exactly as in Brusky's variant — only the board shape differs. Rooks and queens slide along the six orthogonal hex directions; bishops and queens along the six hex-diagonals; knights make the standard 12-destination hex knight leap.

Pawns

  • Pawns step forward into either of the two forward-orthogonal hexes.
  • On their first move they may advance two hexes in either of those directions.
  • Captures are on the two slanted forward diagonals only — a pawn may never capture on the diagonal directly in front of it.
  • En passant applies to two-square advances.
  • Pawns promote on the far edge (rank 9 for white, rank 1 for black).

Castling

There are two castles, as in Brusky's. On the kingside — the rook nearer the king, on file a for White and file i for Black — both the king and the rook move two fields. On the queenside — the far rook, file i for White and file a for Black — both pieces move three fields. All hexes between king and rook must be empty, the king may not castle out of, through, or into check, and neither piece may have moved.