Gliński’s hexagonal chess

How Gliński’s hexagonal chess is played

Hexagonal chess is chess on a board of 91 hexagons, invented by Władysław Gliński in 1936. The goal is to checkmate the opposing king: to attack it so that no move can save it. An attacked king is in check, and no move may leave your own king attacked.

The board

The board is a large hexagon of 91 cells in three colours, light, mid and dark, with a corner towards each player. The files run straight up: a to l without j, the f-file in the middle with 11 cells. The ranks are numbered up each file and bend at the f-file, so rank 1 runs from a1 down to f1 and up again to l1.

The start

White has the king on g1, the queen on e1, rooks on c1 and i1, knights on d1 and h1, bishops on f1, f2 and f3, and nine pawns in a chevron from b1 through f5 to k1. Black stands the same way at the top, the pawns on rank 7. Every piece can move at once. White moves first.

The pieces

A rook moves any distance straight across cell edges, in six directions. A bishop moves any distance through cell corners, in six directions, and stays on its colour; the three bishops cover the three colours. The queen moves as both, in twelve directions, and the king steps one cell in any of the twelve. The knight jumps one bishop step and then one rook step at 30° to it: to the twelve nearest cells that lie on none of its lines.

Pawns

A pawn steps one cell straight forward and captures one cell forward to either side, at 60°: on the two cells ahead that touch it, never straight on. From any starting cell of its side it may step two cells, so a pawn that captures from its starting cell onto another one keeps the double step. A pawn that stepped two can be taken en passant on the cell it passed, on the next move only. On the last cell of its file a pawn becomes a queen, rook, bishop or knight. There is no castling.

Winning

Checkmate wins. Stalemate, leaving the opponent without a legal move while not in check, is no draw: the side that gives it scores three quarters of a point and the stalemated side one quarter, as in Gliński’s rules of 1972.

Draws

The same position three times, or fifty moves each without a capture or a pawn move, is a draw. Too little material is no draw by itself: in a corner a king alone takes every cell from the other king, so a single bishop or knight can still mate, and even a bare king can be stalemated.

Where it comes from

Władysław Gliński invented the game in 1936 and launched it in Britain in 1949; he completed its rules in 1972. It became popular above all in Poland, and also in Czechoslovakia, Hungary and Russia. Dave McCooey and Richard Honeycutt’s version of 1979 is a mode of this game; Isaak Shafran’s hexagonal chess on 70 cells, with castling, is another.

The story

Poland and Britain · Władysław Gliński’s game of 1936

When and where

Władysław Gliński, a Pole, invented hexagonal chess in 1936. After the Second World War he settled in Britain, and there he launched the game in 1949. He completed its rules in 1972, changing what a stalemate counts, and published Rules of Hexagonal Chess in 1973 and First Theories of Hexagonal Chess in 1974.

How it changed

Boards of hexagons had been tried before, in Croughton’s game of 1853 and Jaques’s Hexagonia, but neither was won by checkmate. Gliński kept the chess pieces and their ideas on 91 cells in three colours: the rook and the bishop got six directions, the king and the knight twelve moves, a third bishop covers the third colour, and the pawns stand in a chevron. In 1979 Dave McCooey and Richard Honeycutt made a version closer to chess, with seven pawns that capture diagonally. Isaak Shafran, a Soviet geologist, had made another game on hexagons in 1939, on 70 cells and with castling; he applied for a patent on its board in 1956 and showed it at Leipzig in 1960.

Today

Pritchard’s encyclopedia reports that the game once had over half a million players, mostly in Poland, where 130,000 sets were sold in a few months, but also in Czechoslovakia, Hungary and Russia. The first British championship was played in 1976; in 1980 an international federation was founded in London, and Marek Maćkowiak of Poland won the first European championship. After Gliński’s death in 1990 the game declined, and its federation started again in Hungary in 1996. Evgeny Gik thought in 1985 that the regular hexagon of Gliński’s board may have helped it win more players than Shafran’s.

Did you know?

On hexagons a king and two knights can mate a lone king, which they cannot force in chess. And since a stalemate counts, even two bare kings are no sure draw: a careless step into a corner can let the other king take every cell from it.

Sources: Wikipedia · D. B. Pritchard, The Classified Encyclopedia of Chess Variants (2007) · The Chess Variant Pages · Kvant · Google Patents

More games

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• Chess · Classic chess, or Chess960 with a shuffled back rank.
• Chess960 · Fischer random chess: the back rank starts in one of 960 setups.
• Antichess · Losing chess: give away all your pieces, captures are compulsory.
• Atomic chess · Every capture is an explosion that clears the pieces around it.
• Crazyhouse · Captured pieces change sides and can be dropped back onto the board.
• Hostage chess · Captured men become hostages and come back by exchange or from the airfield.
• Three-check · Chess where the third check wins, so every check counts.
• King of the Hill · Chess where a king that reaches the centre wins at once.
• Jeson Mor · Mongolia’s nine horses: take the centre and hold it for a move.
• Racing Kings · No pawns, no checks: the first king on the far rank wins.
• Horde · 36 white pawns storm a full black army.
• Dunsany’s chess · Lord Dunsany’s game of 1942: 32 pawns against a full army.
• Los Alamos chess · Chess on 6 × 6 without bishops, the first game a computer played (1956).
• Duck chess · After every move you move the duck, which blocks everyone. No check.
• Marseillais chess · Two moves a turn, with one piece or two; White starts with one.
• Progressive chess · One move, then two, then three: each turn is one move longer.
• Fog of War · You only see where your pieces can move. Capture the king to win.
• Kriegspiel · Only your own pieces in sight; an umpire judges every move.
• Alice chess · Two boards: every piece that moves passes through to the other one.
• Raumschach 3D · Chess in a 5 × 5 × 5 cube: five boards stacked, and the unicorn.
• Old Raumschach · Maack’s cube as played before 1919: five pawns above the pieces.
• Friendly Chess · Nothing is captured: pieces unite and set off chain reactions.
• Ultima · Every piece captures its own way, and the immobilizer freezes.
• McCooey’s hexagonal chess · Hexagonal chess closer to chess: seven pawns that take diagonally.
• Shafran’s hexagonal chess · Hexagonal chess on 70 cells, with castling and pawns that step three.
• Spartan chess · Persians against Spartans: chess’ army against two kings and new pieces.
• Legan chess · The armies in opposite corners; pawns step diagonally towards the far one.

Big chess

• Complete chess · The Arabic chess of the 9th century on 10 × 10, with two dabbābas a side.
• Courier chess · Medieval Germany’s chess on a 12 × 8 board, with the courier, the man and the schleich.
• Grande Acedrex · Alfonso X’s great chess on a 12 × 12 board, with lions, giraffes and a roc.
• Tamerlane chess · Timur’s great chess on an 11 × 10 board, with giraffes, camels and citadels.
• Carrera’s chess · The first chess on ten files, from a Sicilian priest’s book of 1617.
• Duke of Rutland’s chess · Fourteen files, with the concubine and two crowned rooks a side.
• Bird’s chess · Henry Bird’s ten-file chess of 1874, with the guard and the equerry.
• Capablanca chess · Ten files and two new pieces: the archbishop and the chancellor.
• Gothic chess · Ed Trice’s setup of 2000, today called Trice’s Chess.
• Capablanca Random · Capablanca chess from one of 12,118 shuffled starts.
• Embassy chess · Grand chess’ row of pieces on a 10 × 8 board.
• Janus chess · Two januses a side, each moving as a bishop or a knight.
• Grand chess · Christian Freeling’s 10 × 10 game: pawns promote only to lost pieces.
• S-chess · Chess with a hawk and an elephant in hand, placed as the back rank leaves.

The chess family

• Chaturanga · India’s ancient chess, the root of the family: take the king to win.
• Shatranj · The medieval ancestor of chess, with a weak ferz and a jumping alfil.
• Byzantine chess · Shatranj on a round board: the rook circles, pawns never promote.
• Medieval chess · Europe’s chess before 1475: the ferz and the king may leap on their first move.
• Senterej · Ethiopian chess: no turns until the first capture, then Shatranj.
• Shatar · Mongolian chess: the bers, the camel, and a mate that needs a shak.
• Makruk · Thai chess: a slow, strategic game with a counting rule.
• Ouk Chatrang · Cambodian chess: Makruk with a leap for the king and the met.
• Sittuyin · Burmese chess: set up your pieces, then promote on the diagonals.
• Kar Ouk · Ouk Chatrang where the first check wins: guard your king.
• Malay chess · Chess of the Malay world: the king leaps, a crowned pawn walks back.
• Xiangqi · Chinese chess: a river, palaces and a cannon that jumps to capture.
• Minixiangqi · Xiangqi on 7 × 7 points: no river, no advisors, no elephants.
• Manchu chess · Red’s lone chariot moves as horse and cannon too, against a full army.
• Jieqi · Xiangqi with the pieces face down: each is revealed by its first move.
• Banqi · Xiangqi’s pieces face down on half a board: turn them up, take by rank.
• Janggi · Korean chess: no river, palace diagonals and a cannon that always jumps.
• Shogi · Japanese chess: captured pieces return to the board on your side.
• Minishogi · Shogi on a 5 × 5 board: six pieces a side, short and sharp games.
• Chu shogi · Japan’s great shogi on 12 × 12: no drops, and a lion that moves twice.
• Tori shogi · Bird shogi on 7 × 7: a phoenix, quails and swallows, with drops.

More players

• Chaturaji · India’s four-handed chess: kings can be captured, captures score.
• Four Seasons Chess · Alfonso X’s chess for four from 1283: four seasons, the last king wins.
• Three-player chess · Three armies on a hexagonal board: you against two bots.
• Four-player chess · Four armies on a cross-shaped board: in teams or all against all.
• Bughouse · Two boards, two teams: what you capture goes to your partner's hand.
• Eight-player chess · Eight armies on a board of 516 squares: all against all, in pairs or four against four.
• Verney’s four-handed chess · Verney’s game of 1881: two against two, mate both enemy kings.
• Verney’s eight-handed chess · Verney’s game for eight of 1884: four against four on 448 squares.