Friday, June 10, 2022

Minotaur chess


I got this Minoan set quite a long time ago. My aim was to create a board for it, but good ideas for that never materialised, so the set remained in its box for some years. Recently, I thought that it would actually fit well on the mother-of-pearl board of my Egyptian set. And if I ever get a good idea for a custom-made board for it, there will be nothing stopping me doing so ...

For a Minoan chess set, there can only be one appropriate variant: Minotaur chess! Check the link for the backstory of this variant, as well as the full rules. A major difference with FIDE chess is that the non-moving queen is the target rather than the king.




One of the two bishops on each side, the one on the dark squares, can be placed on any of the remaining dark squares in front of the other pieces.


Even though capturing the queen is the aim for winning a game of Minotaur chess, and her powers are basically zero compared to the queen in FIDE chess, you still have to go through all the other pieces to get to her ...