Chess Variants/Modern Chess

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Initial setup of modern chess.

Modern chess is a variant played on a 9 by 9 board that adds a new piece that combines the moves of the bishop and the knight.

Modern chess was invented in 1968 by a Puerto Rican, Gabriel Vicente Maura. It attracted a handful of followers in Spain and Latin America, and tournaments were organised by FEMDAM (Federación Mundial de Ajedrez Moderno, the World Federation of Modern Chess). However Maura was forced to stop promoting the variant in 1983 due to a serious illness, after which it disappeared off the radar.

Modern chess is played on a 9 by 9 board with the usual chess pieces plus a new piece called the prime minister.

The prime minister () combines the powers of the bishop and the knight. It may slide diagonally like a bishop or jump in an "L" shape like a knight, but not both in one move.

A pawn may promote to a prime minister alongside the usual promotion options.

All other rules are the same as standard chess.

In the initial setup of modern chess, all four bishops start on dark squares, meaning the bishops will be restricted to dark squares for the entire game. This aspect of the game produced much criticism, so to provide a solution to this problem Maura proposed an optional rule that can be used in the game if the players agree to it.

On a player's turn, they are allowed to swap one of their bishops with a piece adjacent to it, provided that they are not in check and the pieces to be swapped have not previously been moved.

In countries where the variant is more popular, another common optional rule to create a light-squared bishop is to require that one of the bishops must move one square orthogonally as its first move.

This chess variant does not have any notable sub-variants.