Vladimir Pribylinec writes that the cubes in Cubic Chess move as in orthochess by a symbol uppermost as is described in both editions of Pritchard's Encyclopedia of Chess Variants, first published in 1977. In the Burmese form of the game, three dice were thrown and each player made three moves at a time. The dice were thrown before each turn to determine the piece to be moved the same numbering system as set forth above was used ( 1=pawn, 2=knight, etc.). History Īnne Sunnucks writes that there is evidence from the literature of the period that dice were used to play chess in Europe between the 11th and 14th centuries, and even earlier in Burma and India. A third form of the game uses two dice of contrasting colors, with one determining the piece that can move, and the other the number of moves that the piece makes. The maximum number of moves that can be played is usually four, so a roll of a 4, 5, or 6 allows the player to make four moves. A second way to use dice is to have each player roll one die on each turn, with the number rolled indicating the number of moves to be played. The most common is similar to that described in the preceding sections.
John Gollon, in his book Chess Variations: Ancient, Regional, and Modern, notes three ways in which dice may be used in connection with a game of chess. That site also states that "Pritchard's Encyclopedia of Chess Variants contains descriptions of seven versions of what he calls 'Dice Chess'." Rather, the goal is to actually capture the king.Īnother form of dice chess is Vegas Fun Chess, whose rules are described on The Chess Variant Pages. Pawns may move from the seventh to the eighth rank not only on a roll of 1 (when they promote to a piece of the player's choice), but also on a roll of 2, 3, 4 or 5 (when they can promote only to the piece specified by the roll).There is no standard ruleset for dice chess, and so games called dice chess may have different rules to the ones given here.įor example, in the version of dice chess given on the BrainKing site: White rolls a 2 and a 4, and plays 5.Ng5#, ending the game (see diagram). Black rolls a 1 and a 3 again, this does not allow a legal response to the check, so he must pass. (A 3 or 5 would have enabled an immediate win with 4.Bxe8, 4.Qf3 # or 4.Qh5#). (Only a 6, or doubles, would have allowed him to move.) White rolls a 2 and a 4, and chooses 4.Nf3. Black rolls a 2 and a 4 since no knight or rook move is a legal response to the check, he must pass. White rolls a 3 and a 6, and plays 3.Bxf7+. Black rolls a 4 and a 5 since no queen move is possible, he must play the only legal rook move, 2.Rb8.
White rolls a 3 and a 4, and plays 2.Bc4. Black rolls a 2 and a 3 no bishop move being possible, he plays 1.Nc6. White rolls doubles, allowing her to play any move, and selects 1.e4. This section uses algebraic notation to describe chess moves.