Hexagonal Chess - Shafran's Hexagonal Chess

Shafran's Hexagonal Chess

Invented by Soviet geologist Isaak Grigorevich Shafran in 1939 and registered in 1956. It was demonstrated at the Worldwide Chess Exhibition in Leipzig in 1960.

The board is shaped as an irregular hexagon with nine files and ten ranks, comprising 70 hex cells as opposed to 91 in Gliński's board. The files are labelled a to i; the oblique ranks running diagonally from 10 to 4 o'clock are numbered 1 to 10. For example (see diagram), the two kings start on e1 and e10; White's rooks start on a1 and i5, and Black's rooks start on a6 and i10. Each player calls the left-hand side of the board his "queen's flank" and the right-hand side his "bishops' flank"; note that they do not correlate (White's queen's flank is Black's bishops' flank).

The pieces and pawns move and capture exactly as in McCooey's hex chess, with the exceptions of castling, and pawn first-move options. In Shafran's hex chess, a pawn's first move can take it to the middle of the file. (So, the d-, e-, and f-pawns may make a triple-step initial move; the b-, c-, g-, and h-pawns may make a double-step initially; and the a- and i-pawns can advance only one step.) When a pawn makes a multi-step move, it is subject to capture by en passant.

In the diagram of the left, the black pawn on d8 has three possible moves, but none is safe: after 1... d7 it can be captured 2. exd7; after 1... d6 it can be captured 2. exd7 e.p. or 2. cxd6; after 1... d5 it can be captured en passant by either pawn.

Castling is possible in Shafran's chess (unlike Gliński's or McCooey's). The usual restrictions apply. It can be long or short castling in either direction. The notation consists of Q- or B- (indicating whether the queen's or the bishops' rook is used) followed by 0-0-0 (long castling: the king moves next to the rook and the rook jumps over it) or 0-0 (short castling, the king moves one cell less distance). In the diagram, the black king on h10 has castled long queenside (1... Q-0-0-0) and the black king on c8 has castled short bishopside (1... B-0-0). Castling does not typically increase the king's safety or make the rook more active, but it is present in the game nonetheless, for completeness.

Stalemate is a draw in Shafran's hexagonal chess.