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Presentation
Who said that a chess-variant board
should have even dimensions?
Tamerlane II
uses a 11 x 11 board. Why not going a step further with
the odd number 13? This is the starting idea governing
this chess-variant.
An odd game should be different. That is its nature. Then,
the army at fight in this game presents men which have not
or seldom been used in my other games, despite they have a
familiar style which make them easy to familiarize for the
new players.
There are 13 types of pieces in this game, naturally if it
is possible to say so. Several of them have a long
three-square distance effect which is perturbing. The
atmosphere at play is weird. It is just fantastic.
Setup
The board is odd with 169 squares, made
by 13 rows and 13 columns.
There are 30 pieces in each side: 1 King, 2 Snakes, 2
Ships, 2 Hawks, 2 Mammoths, 2 Cheetahs, 2 Squirrels, all
of them on the 1st row of each player; 2 Trolls and 1
Prince on the 2nd row, another single Troll on the 3rd row
and 13 Pawns forming a complete line on the 4th row.
That sums to 10 types of piece in the setup. But three
types of men may appear by “elevation”: Saber-tooth,
Eagle, and Rhinoceros. In total, they are 13 different
types of pieces.
The goal is to checkmate the opposing King. White side
plays first.
Initial Setup at Fantastic XIII
Moves

- Pawn:
it moves as in Metamachy,
not as is usual Chess. It can move straight forward one
or two square from any position on the board,
without capturing. It captures one square diagonally
forward. It may capture en-passant and get promoted to a
Saber-tooth when reaching the opposed side of the board.
- Prince: as
in Metamachy. He moves and
captures one square in any direction like a King, but
without being hindered by check. Like the Pawn, he can
also move without capturing to the second square
straight ahead from any position on the board and he get
promoted to a Saber-tooth when reaching the opposed side
of the board.
- Troll: as in Terachess,
it jumps 3 step horizontally, vertically or
diagonally. No matter what intermediate squares
contain. It may capture while jumping in that way. The
Troll is also able to move and capture as a simple
Pawn, one step straight ahead to move on a free square
or one step diagonally forward to capture an opponent.
The Troll cannot move two steps forward at any moment.
This permits the Troll to reach any square on the
board. No e.p. It may promote to a Saber-tooth on the
opponent's back row on some conditions explained
below.

- Squirrel: it is a "ring" leaper which
jumps as a Knight or jumps at 2 squares, diagonally (a
move called Alfil) or orthogonally (a move
called Dabbaba).

- Cheetah: it
is another "ring" leaper which jumps on any square
situated at 3 squares distance from where it
stands.
- Mammoth: it steps horizontally,
vertically or diagonally one or two squares, leaping
over the intermediate square if it is occupied.
- Hawk: it jumps horizontally, vertically
or diagonally two or three squares, leaping over the
intermediate squares if they are occupied.
- Ship: a piece also used in Tamerlane II. It moves one
square diagonally and then, goes away of an indefinite
number of cases vertically, never horizontally. It can
move one square diagonally only. It can not jump and
must begin its move with the diagonal step. The Ship is
more limited than the Eagle (which can
move horizontally, see below). Nevertheless its move
power is comparable to the Rook and the Bishop.

- Snake: it
moves one square vertically and then, slides away of an
indefinite number of squares diagonally. It can not jump
and the unobstructed path must start with the vertical
movement. The Snake is the counterpart of the Ship. Both
pieces are constrained bent-riders because the vertical
direction is favored compare to the horizontal one in
the definition of their moves.
Three pieces are not present on the initial setup but
may appear during the game by promotion:
- Eagle:
exactly as in Metamachy.
This piece may appear in this game by promotion of a
Ship. It moves one square diagonally and then, slides
away of an indefinite number of squares vertically or
horizontally. It is authorized to go only one square
diagonal. It can not jump and the unobstructed path must
start with the diagonal movement. This piece is also
known as Gryphon in many chess variants.
- Rhinoceros:
exactly as in Zanzibar.
This piece may appear in this game by promotion of a
Snake. It moves one square vertically or
horizontally and then, slides away of an indefinite
number of squares diagonally. It is authorized to go
only one square in line or column. It can not jump and
the unobstructed path must start with the orthogonal
movement. It is a counterpart of the Eagle. It is now
called Manticore on the chess-variants
pages.
- Saber-tooth
(Tiger): jumps on any square situated at 2
or 3 squares distance from where it stands. This piece
may appear later on by promotion of a Pawn, a
Prince or a Troll.
The Saber-tooth is a “double-ring” leaper: it combines
the powers of the Squirrel and the Cheetah, meaning that
it can leap at any square at two or three-square
distance from the square where it stands.
Other rules
- Pawn and Prince
Promotion: A Pawn or a Prince reaching the
last rank of the board is immediately replaced by a
Saber-tooth. Promotion to any other type of piece is not
allowed.
- Troll Promotion:
Trolls also promote to Saber-tooth on last row but only
when they reach that line with a one-step move or
capture, i.e. like a Pawn. They do not promote when they
reach the last row by a long 3-square jump.
- Ship and Snake
Promotion: These two pieces promote to Eagle
and Rhinoceros respectively on last row, which is a
manner of completing their powers for a uniform move in
all directions.
- En Passant capture:
Any time a Pawn or a Prince takes a double
step and passes through the capture square of an
opposing Pawn, that Pawn may capture the opposing piece
as if it had only moved one square. This en passant
capture must be made in the immediate move following the
double step. Only a Pawn may capture en passant.
- End Of Game: The
end-of-game rules, checkmate, stalemate, etc., are
identical to standard chess. The goal is to
checkmate the opposing King.
Pieces Value
Our estimate average pieces
value, normalized to 5 for the Rook (if this piece was
present on this game, which is actually not the case) is:
Pawn: 0.75, Troll: 3.25, Prince: 3.25, Snake: 3.5,
Ship: 4.5, Hawk: 5.5, Squirrel: 6, Mammoth: 6.5,
Rhinoceros: 7.5, Eagle: 8.25, Cheetah: 8.5, Saber-tooth:
17.5.
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