The Corner Chess, also known as the King’s Corner Chess, differs from the classic Chess by its starting position of pieces:
- Both kings are located in the lower right corners (from the particular player’s point of view) – it explains the name of this variation.
- Other pieces except pawns, i.e. queen, both rooks, both bishops and both knights, are randomly placed in the base rank.
- One bishop must stand on a white square and the other one on a black square.
- Pawns will stay in their normal position – the second (seventh) row.
- The starting positions of both players are center-symmetrical. It means that, for instance, if the white queen stands on c1 square, the black queen will be placed on f8 square.
The following diagram shows an example of a starting position:
And, of course, no castling is allowed. Otherwise, the normal chess rules apply. The strategy is usually driven by the particular starting position, as the random shuffle of the pieces can create specific weak points both players try to exploit. Watch a sample game that had been played on BrainKing.com: