See all Unusual Chess Sets.
Three Player Chess
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Amazing! Three player Chess on a hexagonal board. 3 player chess played with just the same rules as standard 2 player chess but adjusted to take account of the hexagonal board. The game is not a gimmick; it's a really interesting version of Chess that enables an extra player to play.
The extra rules are minimal but the hexagonal nature of the board does bend your mind:
- When a pieces that moves diagonally reaches the middle point of the board, it can travel in one of two directions.
- The first King must be actually taken rather than just checkmated. The owner of the first King can move even while in a checkmate position.
The ramifications of of the hexagonal board turn out to be pretty fascinating, once you've understood the way that pieces move through the middle point. For instance:
- Having a temporary ally can be more important than having a good position. Two poorer players can gang up on the better player so the better player is not always guaranteed to win.
- An exchange of pieces is usually a bad idea. If you exchange pieces with another player, the 3rd player is now a piece up!
- The value of the diagonally moving pieces is somewhat increased as they threaten more squares than on the traditional chessboard. So one could perhaps argue that the exchange of a Bishop for a Knight is less viable.
- The rule that the first King must be taken exists because of the interesting possibility that the 3rd player might do something that enables a King to actually escape from a checkmate...
The larger set has a 8.5cm (3.5 inch) King; it measures 54cm from point to point across the board. The standard set has a a 6cm (2 & 1/4 inch) high King. The standard version measures 40.5cm from point to point across the board. Pieces are Red, White and the dark colour to match the board. Rules are included.
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UK pounds (ex.VAT) |
Pounds (incl. VAT) |
ETA in workg. days |
Add to basket |
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Large 3 player Chess (pieces and board) |
£36.58 | £43.90 | Eng/Wales: 2 wk.days |
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Standard 3 Player Chess - brown (pieces and board) |
£29.08 | £34.90 | Eng/Wales: 2 wk.days |
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The Origin of ChessA great deal has been written about the origins of chess and there is still a lot of debate on the subject. The earliest clear ancestor of chess is shaturanga or chaturanga which was invented by a 6th century Indian philosopher. It was a battle between four armies each under the control of a Rajah (king), two players being loosely allied against the other two and and each containing 4 corps - Infantry, Cavalry, Elephants and Boatmen. The board of 64 squares used for shaturanga, was borrowed from an earlier game called ashtapada, which was a race game played in ancient India. Under Hindu law, gambling became forbidden early on in the Hindu civilisation and, to avoid the gambling laws, shaturanga players dispensed with the dice. Another early modification was the merging of the allied armies into a single army making the game a two player form and duplicating the pieces, both developments which have survived until today. Other changes also occurred and the resulting game was called shatranj. There are three versions of the story of arrival of shatranj in Europe - did it come from the Saracens via Spain, from the Byzantine empire as a present to Charlemagne or was it brought back from the Middle East by Knights returning from the Crusades? Nonetheless in Europe, the game developed into modern European chess now played worldwide while in China, Japan, Burma, Thailand and Korea, other variants became just as popular. You can learn more about the History of Chess from The Online Guide to Traditional Games. |