The Doublebarrel is a bifurcation piece. It slides like a bishop. Following the diagonal move, it can make a capture by jumping orthogonally over a piece of any colour, and land on an enemy piece positioned immediately behind the jumped piece. The jump is performed in the prolonged movement direction only (two direction alternatives). While the Doublebarrel slides along a diagonal, several orthogonals (in the prolonged movement direction) could be chosen. The Doublebarrel's value is 3, that is, the same as a bishop or knight (preliminary estimate). Otherwise the rules are the same as in standard chess, except for the possible promotion to Doublebarrel.
The Doublebarrel can easily get trapped, while it cannot capture diagonally. On the other hand, the tactical capability of this piece is pronounced. The Doublebarrel is more valuable, and more mobile, than the Chinese Cannon. Therefore it is easily integrable with the powerful pieces, and the congested board situation, of Western chess.
Doublebarrel Chess, and the new Doublebarrel piece, were invented by undersigned, August 2006. There is also a variant where Scorpions take the place of the pawns.
Doublebarrels move in two legs, the first is a diagonal slide and the second is an orthogonal 'cannon' capture-jump, which is optional. The rook cannot be captured because it is not positioned immediately behind the screen.
The Doublebarrel's capture principle. In any of its four diagonal movement directions, there could be many screens to choose from. The screens occur anywhere on the second leg. Compare with the Chinese cannon's capture principle below.
Chinese cannon: the screen occurs anywhere on the one leg. (Movement occurs in four directions.)
• You can download my free Doublebarrel Chess program here (updated 2007-05-11), 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 (August 2006).
