Wildebeest Chess is a chess variant

Chess variant

A chess variant is a game related to, derived from or inspired by chess. The difference from chess might include one or more of the following:...

 created by R. Wayne Schmittberger in 1987. The Wildebeest gameboard

Board game

A board game is a game which involves counters or pieces being moved on a pre-marked surface or "board", according to a set of rules. Games may be based on pure strategy, chance or a mixture of the two, and usually have a goal which a player aims to achieve...

 is 11×10 squares, and besides the standard chess pieces, each side has one wildebeest and two camels.

The intent of the inventor is to balance, in comparison to chess, "the number of 'riders'—pieces that move along open lines—with the number of 'leapers'—pieces that jump". (So for each side, two knights, two camels, and one wildebeest balance two rooks

Rook (chess)

A rook is a piece in the strategy board game of chess. Formerly the piece was called the castle, tower, marquess, rector, and comes...

, two bishops

Bishop (chess)

A bishop is a piece in the board game of chess. Each player begins the game with two bishops. One starts between the king's knight and the king, the other between the queen's knight and the queen...

, and one queen

Queen (chess)

The queen is the most powerful piece in the game of chess, able to move any number of squares vertically, horizontally, or diagonally. Each player starts the game with one queen, placed in the middle of the first rank next to the king. With the chessboard oriented correctly, the white queen starts...

.)

The game was played regularly in the (now defunct) correspondence

Correspondence chess

Correspondence chess is chess played by various forms of long-distance correspondence, usually through a correspondence chess server, through email or by the postal system; less common methods which have been employed include fax and homing pigeon...

 game club kNights Of the Square Table (NOST).

Moves of the wildebeest and camel

The camel in Wildebeest Chess moves and captures the same as the camel fairy chess

Fairy chess

Fairy chess comprises chess problems that differ from classical chess problems in that they are not direct mates. The term was introduced before the First World War. While selfmate dates from the Middle Age, helpmate was invented by Max Lange in the late 19th century. Thomas Dawson , pioneer of...

 piece; namely, like an elongated chess knight – jumping over any intervening pieces in a 2×4 rectangular pattern. (Thus, each camel is bound to one square color only.) The wildebeest can move and capture as either a camel or a chess knight

Knight (chess)

The knight is a piece in the game of chess, representing a knight . It is normally represented by a horse's head and neck. Each player starts with two knights, which begin on the row closest to the player, one square from the corner...

.

Other special rules

Play, moves, and captures are the same as in standard chess, except for these special game rules:

• On the first move, a pawn may advance one, two, or three squares in a single move.
• Pawns that have advanced one square (i.e., white pawns on the third rank, or black pawns on the eighth rank) can advance one or two squares in a single move.
• Pawns that have advanced two squares or more (i.e., white pawns on the fourth rank or beyond, or black pawns on the seventh rank or beyond) may advance only one step at a time.
• A pawn that has advanced two or three squares in a single move may be captured en passant
  En passant
  En passant is a move in the board game of chess . It is a special pawn capture which can occur immediately after a player moves a pawn two squares forward from its starting position, and an enemy pawn could have captured it had it moved only one square forward...
  
  , if an enemy pawn on an adjacent file could have captured the pawn on a square the pawn passed. (As in chess, the option to capture en passant must be taken immediately or the right is lost.)
• A pawn may promote to only a queen, or a wildebeest.
• All chess castling
  Castling
  Castling is a special move in the game of chess involving the king and either of the original rooks of the same color. It is the only move in chess in which a player moves two pieces at the same time. Castling consists of moving the king two squares towards a rook on the player's first rank, then...
  
   rules apply, with the only difference that the castling player can choose to slide his king over one, two, three, or four squares in the castling move. (As in chess, the castling rook ends on the opposite side of the king on the square adjacent.)
• Besides checkmate
  Checkmate
  Checkmate is a situation in chess in which one player's king is threatened with capture and there is no way to meet that threat. Or, simply put, the king is under direct attack and cannot avoid being captured...
  
  , stalemate
  Stalemate
  Stalemate is a situation in chess where the player whose turn it is to move is not in check but has no legal moves. A stalemate ends the game in a draw. Stalemate is covered in the rules of chess....
  
  is also a win. (So, the player who cannot move, loses.)

External links

• "Wildebeest Chess" by Hans Bodlaender, The Chess Variant Pages
• "Recognized Chess Variant: Wildebeest Chess" by Glenn Overby, The Chess Variant Pages
• Play.Chessvariants.org the Wildebeest Chess PBM Game Courier
• Pathguy.com a simple Wildebeest Chess program by Ed Friedlander