Adjutant Chess

(Gustavian Citadel Chess, Extra Corners Chess)

invented and implemented November 2008
by Mats Winther

See also my homepage.











Adjutant Chess follows the rules of orthodox chess, with the exception of the extended castling rule. The curious but useful board was invented by king Gustav III of Sweden (see Gustav III's Chess). The extra corner squares (citadels) are also known from medieval big board variants, such as Citadel Chess (14th century?). The board sizes were either 10x10 or 12x12 and had four extra protruding squares that served as sanctuaries for the king. (cf. Pritchard: The Classified Encyclopedia of Chess Variants, p.244)

Extended castle: when castling the king may jump three squares, but it can also jump two as usual. The rook ends up on its usual square. The extended castling rule makes play on the wings easier to achieve. The king can rapidly take control over the kingside or queenside corner square.


Disregarding the situation on the rest of the board, this illustrates how convenient the extra corner square is when launching an attack on the wing. When the king gets out of harm's way, this also makes it easier for the pieces to maneuver.



In an alternative variant, Adjutants are placed on the extra corner squares. The Adjutant slides in any direction, but on the orthogonals it slides only on one colour. The opposite colour squares are simply ignored. The Adjutant's value is 6, that is, the same as rook + pawn, or two light pieces. The Adjutant is really an enhanced bishop that can also move orthogonally. Its main weakness is that it cannot give mate together with the king.

Adjutant [of 'adjutare' to help] : a staff officer in the army, air force, or marine corps who assists the commanding officer and is responsible esp. for correspondence.



The Adjutant also slides on the orthogonals by ignoring the opposite colour squares. Note that it cannot leap over occupied squares of its own colour.



An alternative variant features the Orthobishop, which slides orthogonally, but on the same square only. It's like an Adjutant without the diagonal movement.

In yet another variant Kwaggas take the place of the knights. The Kwagga moves like an extended knight, 3+1. It can multiply jumps, but only capture on the first.



In an alternative variant the knights are replaced by Kwaggas. The Kwagga moves like a Camelrider, that is, jumps 3+1 and can make continuous jumps in the same direction. However, the Kwagga can only capture on the first jump. It derives from my Bodyguard Chess.



There is an alternative variant with Crabs instead of pawns.
The Crab moves like a pawn, but if its northward movement is blocked on the enemy side it can move to empty squares east-north-east and west-north-west.



You can play Adjutant Chess (with Adjutants) online and by e-mail here.

You can play Adjutant Chess (with empty corner squares) online and by e-mail here.



To play you must have installed "Zillions of Games". Either double-click on AdjutantChess.zrf or
1. Run "Zillions of Games"
2. Choose "Open Game Rules..." from the File menu
3. Select "AdjutantChess.zrf" in the Open dialog and click "Open"
AdjutantChess.zrf is a rules file used by the Windows program "Zillions of Games". Zillions of Games allows you to play any number of games against the computer or over the Internet. Zillions of Games can be purchased online. For more information please visit the Zillions of Games website www.zillions-of-games.com