Triple Chess

Standard chess is boring and monotonous. An 8x8 board no longer meets the increased intellectual needs of modern man. We are suffocated by the lack of fresh ideas, the opportunity to create and improvise in this cramped 8 by 8 room.
It's time to break out of this limited space, devoid of inspiration and fully breathe in the air of fresh ideas and plunge headlong into the seething stream of the unknown.

Three ordinary chess boards and three sets of chess pieces will help us in this. 
First we need to connect three chess boards together.

Now we have not only a great tool for learning the alphabet, but also a great playing field, ready to receive the brave armies of the two opposing sides.

We have three standard sets of chess pieces and we are going to play according to the standard rules of European or international chess regulated by FIDE, with the only difference being the number of pieces involved in the game. Therefore, two kings from our triple set will have to be removed. Well, indeed, as one song says: … 'Cause there's only one king and there's only one crown'...

Thus, we are faced with the question of the initial arrangement of 24 pawns, three queens, six bishops, six knights and six rooks.

No matter how we try to arrange chess pieces within two home ranks, we will always have two squares of the board free. Perhaps it will occur to us to introduce two additional queens or a pair of knights (bishops, rooks) into the game, or maybe even two exotic fairy chess pieces. The longer we puzzle over the solution of this problem, the further we will move away from the implementation of our idea with three sets of chess. In addition, you will have to run to the store for the fourth chess set. No, we will act much more simply and rationally.

Let's arrange all our chess pieces in three parts of the 8x24 board as they would stand when playing on one board and place our king in the center:

The remaining free squares e1 (e8) and u1 (u8) will be a kind of evacuation zone for His Majesty.

Since castling becomes complicated and obscure on a board of this size, we will consider these empty squares as a possible location for the king. Thus, the king, if necessary and without the help of other pieces, can be moved once per game to one of these free cells, performing what is called castling in ordinary chess. But since the rook does not participate in the movement of the king, we will call this whole process Evacuation of the king.

The evacuation of the king is possible at any stage of the game, provided that the king has not made moves in the game and is not in check, and the evacuation point - the square e1 (e8) and u1 (u8) - is free and is not attacked by an opponent's piece.

Since the king is evacuated from one field to another without the help of other pieces, simply by teleporting from one point of the playing field to another, there is no such thing as passing through a square that is attacked by an enemy piece.

Each side can make only one Evacuation of the king during the game.

So, on the very first move in the game, White can Evacuate his king to e1 or u1.

In algebraic notation, it is enough to use the same castling notation as in ordinary chess:
0-0 Evacuation to the short side (for White to the right)
0-0-0 Evacuation to the long side (for Whites to the left)

Game balance. Interaction Between Chess Pieces.

The effect of the gravitational force of long-range pieces on the diagonals is very curious. On such an 8x24 board, we can see as many as two points of intersection of such pieces, creating special centers of convergence of forces.

This is somewhat reminiscent of some positions from Fischer Chess, for example, starting position #80:

Thanks to the presence of such centers, the game becomes more dynamic and intense. All this gives a special character to the events taking place on the board from the very first moves of the game.

It is interesting that the speedy removal of tension from such centers of convergence of forces, with the help of exchanges, leads to a significant weakening of one of the flanks. For example:

1. e4 j6 2. Be2 Nk6

And if we now make exchanges, bleeding the diagonal d1-k8, then White's left flank loses significant combat capability:

3. Bxk8 Qxk8 4. Qxk8 Rxk8

White's left flank is ruined, although not a single black piece has set foot in this territory. And at the same time, despite the material advantage in the central sector of the board, they have no attacking play here, since such seemingly active moves as l4 or m4 meet worthy resistance in the form of Black's reply g6 and r6, respectively.

Points of weakness.

We are all well acquainted with the weakest point of the initial arrangement of ordinary chess. For Black this point is the square f7. In Open Game (Double King's Pawn Opening) it is through the attack of this square that White's whole game is built.

During the existence of modern chess, many effective ways have been devised to counter such a game by White. Our Triple Chess also has similar points of weakness, but neutralizing attacks on these squares is much faster and more effective.

These points of weakness or vulnerability are easy to spot in the initial setup. They are located next to the free squares of the Evacuation of Kings. The fastest attack of these squares does not give practically anything, but on the contrary, it helps the opponent to effectively counteract aggression:

1. k4 (or k3) g6

or 1. Nv3 v6

Moreover, the instant Evacuation of the king to one of these points can also frustrate the plans of the attacking side.

Conclusions.

So, having retained the basic principles and laws of standard chess, we have a new dynamic and more strategic version of chess that takes this old logic game to a whole new level.

Let's sum up the rules of the game.

Triple Chess is a variant of chess on an 8x24 board (i.e. three boards) using three standard sets of chess pieces.

The player has at his disposal: 1 king, three queens, six knights, six bishops, six rooks and 24 pawns.

The initial arrangement is shown in the picture:

and represents three chessboards connected together with the classical initial arrangement of pieces on each of them, with the exception of the kings on the left and right parts of the resulting playing field 8x24.

All rules fully and completely correspond to the rules of standard chess, govering by FIDE Law of Chess with the exception of castling, which is absent in this game and is replaced by Evacuation of the king to one of the available free squares (e1 (e8) or u1 (u8)) of the initial arrangement during the game.

All goals and objectives of the game are entirely consistent with the goals and objectives of standard chess.

Next time, friends, we will make a playing field of six chessboards and play such chess that will lead all chess engines to a combinatorial explosion.