Guanaco Chess features the Guanaco, belonging to the Lama family of pieces. They jump orthogonally on every second square, but have only four capture squares. The Guanaco's value is somewhat less than a knight, and perhaps it's as low as 2.25 (after extensive tests by H.G. Muller).

The Guanaco jumps continuously two squares orthogonally to empty square (i.e. it slides on the same square colour). It can also step, and capture, one square orthogonally. A peculiarity is that jumps are allowed even if it has a capture possibility on the first square.

Extended castling: besides normal castling one can choose to move the king three squares instead of two. The rook ends up on its usual square. The corner square provides a hiding nest for the king should the player want to invoke play on the same wing and advance with the pawns. The extended castle rule also makes play on the wings easier to achieve. Queenside castle becomes more attractive. The extra corner squares will enhance the strategical possibilities. Try placing the king on the extra corner square, advance the g-pawn (or b-pawn), and follow up with rooks from behind. The king will be safe and will not stand in the way of the rooks.

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.

The Lama pieces (Llama, Alpaca, Guanaco, and Vicuņa) also appear in Pilgrim Chess and Pioneer Chess.

The Lama family of pieces jump orthogonally on every second square, but have only four capture squares. They can, however, easily change square colour by moving to the adjacent orthogonal square. Any pair of these pieces can achieve checkmate together with a king.

The Llama jumps one or two steps orthogonally, capturing only on the second. Its value is 2.

The Alpaca jumps one or two steps orthogonally, capturing only on the first. Its value is 2.

The Vicuņa jumps two squares orthogonally, and continues jumping as long as there are empty squares. It can also move one square orthogonally. It can only capture on its first two-square jump. Its value is 3.

To play you must have installed "Zillions of Games". Either double-click on GuanacoChess.zrf or
1. Run "Zillions of Games"
2. Choose "Open Game Rules..." from the File menu
3. Select "GuanacoChess.zrf" in the Open dialog and click "Open"
GuanacoChess.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