The illustration shows the starting setup; each player'squeen is placed to the left of theirking.White moves first and play proceeds clockwise around the board. Pieces move the same as they do inchess, with some special features described below. Standard conventions apply includingcastling, apawn's initial two-step option,en passant, andpromotion. The first player tocheckmate an opponent wins the game.
A queen orbishop moving along along diagonal will change square colors when crossing the center of the board.
Aknight jumps in a familiar "L" pattern of the chess knight: two stepsorthogonally in the same direction, then one step orthogonally to the side. Jumping by other than a(2,1) leap is not permitted.[b]
Aking pawn orqueen pawn on its fourth rank has three diagonally forward ways to capture. A pawn always captures to a square of the same color.
A pawn that reaches its fifth rank gains the ability to move orthogonally in any direction, and to capturediagonally in any direction.[c] However, it may not reenter its home one-third portion of the board.
A pawn has three possible promotionranks: theback ranks of either opponent, and the furthest rank directly opposite the player.
The bishop moves along diagonals in the diagram colored dark gray and changes square colors if crossing the center. White's king pawn can advance to the cell with green dot, or capture Black's knight, pawn, or bishop. (The bishop cannot take the pawn, however, since it is not on a diagonal path for doing so.) White's pawn in Red territory is an "arrow pawn" able to move to green dots (one of which promotes) or capture on red dots. It cannot capture Red's pawn, which is also blocking it from moving to that cell. (Should the red pawn move forward, White can take it. For example, if the red pawn moves forward with a double-step, White can take it diagonally backwardse.p.)
The rook moves along the rank and file in the diagram colored light gray. The knight can move to any cell with a green dot.
A player who isstalemated loses their turns to move, unless/until an opponent plays a move that releases the stalemate condition. While stalemated, their king is still subject to checkmate, and their other pieces are still subject to capture.
^This board geometry (threechessboard halves fused together) and initial setup are frequently seen inthree-player chess variants, for example, Three-Player Chess (Zubrin, 1971), Drier-Schach (Schmidt Spiele, 1970s), Yalta (Spindler, 1975), andThreeChess (ThreeChess Team, 2010). The games vary by their rulesets.
^On a regularchessboard, a knight has four different leap patterns, all resulting in identical move possibilities. But the results on the three-man board are not equivalent, and only a (2,1) leap is permitted.
