Legan chess is a chess variant

Chess variant

A chess variant is a game related to, derived from or inspired by chess. The difference from chess might include one or more of the following:...

 invented by L. Legan in 1913. It differs from standard chess

Chess

Chess is a two-player board game played on a chessboard, a square-checkered board with 64 squares arranged in an eight-by-eight grid. It is one of the world's most popular games, played by millions of people worldwide at home, in clubs, online, by correspondence, and in tournaments.Each player...

 by starting position as well as by pawn

Pawn (chess)

The pawn is the most numerous and weakest piece in the game of chess, historically representing infantry, or more particularly armed peasants or pikemen. Each player begins the game with eight pawns, one on each square of the rank immediately in front of the other pieces...

 movements.

Rules

The initial starting position is shown at the right. The game can be also played with the board rotated by 45° clock-wise to make pawn movements easier to understand. There are no castling

Castling

Castling is a special move in the game of chess involving the king and either of the original rooks of the same color. It is the only move in chess in which a player moves two pieces at the same time. Castling consists of moving the king two squares towards a rook on the player's first rank, then...

 and no en passant

En passant

En passant is a move in the board game of chess . It is a special pawn capture which can occur immediately after a player moves a pawn two squares forward from its starting position, and an enemy pawn could have captured it had it moved only one square forward...

 moves. Otherwise, the rules of chess

Rules of chess

The rules of chess are rules governing the play of the game of chess. While the exact origins of chess are unclear, modern rules first took form during the Middle Ages. The rules continued to be slightly modified until the early 19th century, when they reached essentially their current form. The...

 apply.

Pawn movement

Pawns moves one space diagonally forward: white from right to left, black left to right. They capture orthogonally in direction of movements (see the example in the diagram at right). The white pawn on f3 can move to e4 and capture on e3 and f4. Black pawn on b6 can move to c5 and capture on b5 and c6.

Pawn promotion

Pawns promote

Promotion (chess)

Promotion is a chess rule describing the transformation of a pawn that reaches its eighth rank into the player's choice of a queen, knight, rook, or bishop of the same color . The new piece replaces the pawn on the same square and is part of the move. Promotion is not limited to pieces that have...

 on squares occupied in initial position by opponent's king

King (chess)

In chess, the king is the most important piece. The object of the game is to trap the opponent's king so that its escape is not possible . If a player's king is threatened with capture, it is said to be in check, and the player must remove the threat of capture on the next move. If this cannot be...

, bishops

Bishop (chess)

A bishop is a piece in the board game of chess. Each player begins the game with two bishops. One starts between the king's knight and the king, the other between the queen's knight and the queen...

, knights

Knight (chess)

The knight is a piece in the game of chess, representing a knight . It is normally represented by a horse's head and neck. Each player starts with two knights, which begin on the row closest to the player, one square from the corner...

, and rooks

Rook (chess)

A rook is a piece in the strategy board game of chess. Formerly the piece was called the castle, tower, marquess, rector, and comes...

. For example, white pawns promote on squares a5-a8-d8 (marked with white circles); black pawns on e1-h1-h4 (marked with black circles). Note that the pawns that start on d1, h5, a4 and e8 cannot promote without moving toward the center of the board via capturing.

External links

• BrainKing.com - internet server to play Legan chess and many other chess variants.