Description
THREE PLAYER CHESS
HISTORY
The game Sanguoqi, 三 國棋 Three Kingdoms Chess, is a Xiangqi variant for three players,
mentioned in H.J.R. Murray’s book “A History of Chess. He cited von Möllendorf who wrote an
article in German, titled “Schachspiel der Chinesen”, in 1876. One century after, in 1972 Robert
Zubrin invented three player chess.
SETUP
Three Player Chess is a game played between three opponents on an hexagonal shaped board containing 96 squares with 3 sets of chessmen of different colours. Each player has 16 pieces: 1 king, 1 queen, 2 rooks, 2 bishops, 2 knights, and 8 pawns. The game is played in Free for All mode, where every player plays for himself.
GAME PLAY
The goal of the game is to take one of the other two kings. Check is when the king is in danger.
Checkmate happens when the king is in a position to be captured (in check) and cannot escape from capture. The first who captures one another’s king is the winner. This is the little difference
in Three Handed Chess that makes the game interesting and challenging. Checkmate is not enough as in classic chess, you should take the king. When a player is in a checkmate position he looses his turn. And if somehow he is freed up, he can move again.
HOW THE PIECES MOVE
Each of the 6 different kinds of pieces moves differently. Pieces cannot move through other pieces (though the knight can jump over other pieces), and can never move onto a square with one of their own pieces. However, they can be moved to take the place of an opponent’s piece which is then captured. Pieces are generally moved into positions where they can capture other pieces (by landing on their square and then replacing them), defend their own pieces in case of capture, or control important squares in the game.
NB: Unfortunately no game instructions come with this set.
You can get instructions off the Internet.
Chess Set consists of:
Three Sets of Plastic Chess Pieces: in Blue, Red and Green. King Height 76mm (3″)
Vinyl Chess Board: 650mm (25.5″) diameter
Black Canvas Cylindrical Storage Bag: stores the Rolled up Mat and Chess Pieces
