Angel Chess is played on an unusual 9x8 board. The pieces move as in orthochess, with the exception of the additional piece, the "Angel", placed beside the king. The Angel combines the powers of a queen and a knight. It is much stronger than a queen. When castling on the queenside the king jumps three steps. An important special rule: an Angel may not capture an Angel if the piece is visually guarded. The piece counts as guarded even if the player cannot capture back due to exposure of the king (this is a simplification of D'Autremont's rule). Notice that white's and black's bishops cannot meet.
This is an interesting concept. The players' bishops move on different colours, which will create an aggressive game. The party who first launches a king attack has good chances of winning. The opponent's bishop diagonals cannot easily be defended. As the Angels cannot be exchanged an attacking game cannot be avoided. Angels can achieve mate without assistance of any other piece.
Angel Chess was invented by Louis P. D'Autremont in 1918.
Reference
The Classified Encyclopedia of Chess Variants, 2007.
• You can download my free Angel Chess program here (updated 2007-08-10), but you must own the software Zillions of Games to be able to run it (I recommend the download version).
• Don't miss my other chess variants.
© M. Winther 2007 May
