Legan chess

How Legan chess is played

Legan chess is L. Legan’s game of 1913: the pieces of ordinary chess, the two armies packed into opposite corners, and pawns that step diagonally and take straight. Checkmate wins, as in chess.

The start

White’s king stands on h1 and Black’s on a8, each army filling its corner: White has Kh1, Qg2, Rh4, Re1, Bh2, Bf1, Nh3, Ng1 and pawns on d1, e2, f2, e4, f3, g3, g4 and h5; Black the same, turned round. White moves first. The game can also be shown on a board turned by 45°, so that the pawns advance straight up.

Pawns

A pawn steps one square diagonally towards the enemy’s corner onto an empty square: White’s up and to the left (f3–e4), Black’s down and to the right. It takes one square straight ahead or sideways towards that corner: a White pawn on f3 takes on f4 or e3. A pawn never takes diagonally. There is no double step and no en passant.

Promotion

A pawn promotes only on the seven edge squares of the enemy’s corner: White’s on a5, a6, a7, a8, b8, c8 and d8, Black’s on e1, f1, g1, h1, h2, h3 and h4. It becomes a queen, rook, bishop or knight; the sources do not name the pieces, so this app follows chess. A pawn that reaches the edge outside these squares stays a pawn. The pawns that start on d1, h5, a4 and e8 stand on diagonals that miss the zone, so they can promote only after a capture.

Winning and draws

Checkmate wins and stalemate is a draw, as in chess. There is no castling. The sources say nothing more, so this app applies chess’ draws: a position repeated three times, fifty moves by each side without a capture or a pawn move, and positions in which no mate is possible.

The story

The Chess Amateur · L. Legan’s game of 1913, described in 1922

When and where

Legan chess is the game of L. Legan, of whom nothing but the initial and the name is known. It dates from 1913 and was described in The Chess Amateur in 1922. Both armies have the men of ordinary chess, packed into opposite corners: White’s king stands on h1, Black’s on a8.

How it changed

It belongs to a family of games whose pawns move diagonally and take straight. The first was J. A. Porterfield Rynd’s Diamond Chess of 1886, played on a board turned so that the pawns advance along the long diagonal. Legan’s game was the first of its many successors; Lewis’ Diagonal Chess followed in 1943 and Salvadori’s game in 1989.

Today

Ed Friedlander made a Java applet of it in 2001, BrainKing has recorded about 3,500 finished games, and the Fairy-Stockfish engine has known it since 2023. PyChess offers it as a community variant.

Did you know?

Legan invented two more games the same year: the Game of Fortresses, on an I-shaped board, and Aviation, with two “aviators” a side. Pritchard reports that both were played in Paris, the second during the First World War.

Sources: D. B. Pritchard, The Classified Encyclopedia of Chess Variants (2007) · Wikipedia · BrainKing · Fairy-Stockfish · PyChess

More games

Chess and variants

• 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.
• Gliński’s hexagonal chess · Chess on 91 hexagons: three bishops, rooks in six directions.
• 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.

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.