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Ponderchess / Chess variants

Hexagonal Chess

Władysław Gliński’s chess on 91 hexagonal cells in three colours, once played widely in Eastern Europe.
Created
Devised 1936, published 1949
Creator
Władysław Gliński
Where
Poland and the United Kingdom
Board
91 hexagons
What changes
A board of hexagons
Also called
Gliński’s hexagonal chess

Where it came from

Well documented

Several inventors have put chess on hexagons. The best known is the version by the Polish player Władysław Gliński, devised in 1936 and published in Britain in 1949.

It became popular in Poland and elsewhere in Eastern Europe, with its own tournaments. Other hexagonal versions, such as McCooey’s, use the same board with different setups.

Why it was made: New geometry: six directions instead of four changes how every piece moves.

How it differs from chess

  • Three coloursThe board has 91 hexagons in three colours, so there are three bishops per side, one for each colour.
  • Six directionsRooks move through the six edges of a cell, bishops through its six corners, and the queen combines both.

Questions

Why are there three bishops?
The board has three colours, and a bishop stays on one colour, so each side needs three to cover the board.

Sources