Pieces

# Normal Pieces

## Pawn

As in 2D chess, the pawn can move 1 space forwards (towards the opponent's starting pieces) without capturing, or capture diagonally (one space forwards and one space either left or right). They can also move "forwards" through the L-dimension (towards timelines created by the opponent - decreasing L for white, increasing L for black) and may capture by moving sideways through time while doing so. This is particularly useful when an opponent moves back in time by one turn to capture a pawn - if the newly created timeline is adjacent to the one they jumped from, the pawn on the original timeline can recapture the piece that jumped.

A pawn that has not yet moved can move 2 spaces without capturing (in either direction along which it could move 1). En passant capture involving more than one board (when either the capturing piece or the piece to be captured made physical moves) is not possible.

Pawns can be very useful when trying to send a bishop (or queen) back through time. Moving a pawn forward by 1 (or 2) gives a bishop behind it a 1 (or 2) turn window in which it can jump back in time through the pawn, without giving an opponent's piece the opportunity to do the same.

Pawn Movement Video

## Knight

The **knight** (♘, ♞) is a piece in 5D Chess represented by a horse's head and neck. In most Standard variants, Each player starts with two knights, which are located between the  rooks and  bishops in the starting position.

The movement set of the knight is special in the way that it moves Hippogonally, that is, it does not move in straight lines like the other pieces a knight must pick an orthogonal direction and move 2 spaces along it, and then pick a second perpendicular orthogonal direction, and move 1 space along it, the knight can jump over pieces of any color, and is the only piece which can pass through empty spaces in the multiverse.

Knight Movement Video

## Bishop

The **bishop** ( ♗, ♝) is a piece in 5D Chess represented by a stylized depiction of a Christian Mitre (Christian Priest Headwear). In most Standard variants, Each player starts with two bishops, which are located between the king and knight, and between the queen and knight, (c1 and f1).

The movement set of the bishop consists of picking 1 diagonal direction, and moving in that direction until something blocks further movement, whether that be a piece of it's own color, the edge of a board, or the edge of a timeline. The bishop captures enemy pieces in the same way it moves.

Bishops are unique in the way that they are color-bound if they only move spatially, and perform no special/multiverse moves, meaning that if a player is left to make an infinite number of spatial moves with a dark-square bishop, its ending position will always be on a dark-sqaure, each player has two bishops, which operate on the light and dark squares of the board, if a bishop performs a temporal move, it could land on a square of the opposite color, potentially resulting in a player having two light square bishops, or two dark.

Bishop Movement Video

## Rook

The **rook** ( ♖, ♜) is a piece in 5D Chess represented by a medieval tower. In most Standard variants, Each player starts with two rooks, which are located at the corners of the board, between the knights and the edge of the board, the rook is the only piece that is, in the starting position, not defended by any other piece, king or otherwise, this is seen as a non-issue as the rooks aren't opened up toward the beginning of the game.

The movement set of the rook consists of picking 1 orthogonal direction, and moving in that direction until something blocks further movement, whether that be a piece of it's own color, the edge of a board, or the edge of a timeline. The rook captures enemy pieces in the same way it moves.

Rook Movement Video

## Queen

The **queen** ( ♕, ♛) is a pieces in 5D chess represented by a stylized depiction of a 5 pointed royal crown. In most Standard variants, Each player starts with one Queen placed in between the king and the queenside bishop (d-file), in the beginning the Queen was created, this has made a lot of people very angry and has been widely regarded as a bad move.

The queen is a the most powerful piece in Standard variants, as it has a wider range of movement than any other piece, some players consider the queen too strong, strong enough such that it needed to be weakened, hence the princess piece was made along with the princess variant.

The queen's movement set is the most extensive of them all, the queen can move an unlimited amount of squares in a straight line, this line can be orthogonal, diagonal, triagonal, or quadragonal. The queen is a compound piece, it is a combination of the rook, bishop, unicorn, and dragon. The queen can be thought of as to have the same movement of the king, but not limited to 1 square.

In ctp's 5d chess game on steam, the queen is the only piece capable of being promoted to by pawns.

Queen Movement Video

## King

The **king** ( ♔, ♚) can move by one square in any direction (orthogonally, diagonally, triagonally and quadragonally); in other words, its movement is that of a limited queen.

King Movement Video

Like regular chess, the king is vulnerable to check: you must protect it at all cost and the game will not allow you to make a move that would allow your opponent to take your king.
Because the past is set in stone, kings in the past are particularly vulnerable in 5D Chess: any piece that threatens a past king *must* be captured, or else the position results in a softmate or a checkmate.

The king is the only piece that can castle.
It can, *if it hadn't moved yet*, move two squares towards an *unmoved rook*. The rook then jumps to the square that the king traversed.
Castling is impossible if the king is (physically) in check or if the square that is traversed is (physically) in check.

On standard-like variants, castling queenside is notated with
`O-O-O` while castling kingside is notated with
`O-O` (using the letter O, not the digit).

```
[Board "custom"]
[Size "6x6"]
[5k/6/6/6/6/2K\*2R\*:0:1:w]

1. O-O
```
See on chessin5d.net | What is this?
Some variants have a piece based on the king's movement, the Common King, which isn't vulnerable to check and cannot castle.
See its entry for more information.

# Special Pieces

## Dragon

The **dragon** is a special piece invented specifically for 5D Chess, it is represented by the head of a dragon with scales.

Dragon's are not found within any standard variants due to their limited movement, dragons are the only truly color-bound piece in 5D Chess.

The movement set of the dragon consists of picking a quadragonal direction, and moving in that direction until it is stopped by the side of a board, multiverse, or other piece of it's color, dragons capture how they move, as dragons cannot move until there are 2 timelines, they are considered to be worth less than that of a pawn.

## Unicorn

The **Unicorn** is a special piece, it is represented by the knight with a horn on it.

The movement set of the unicorn consists of picking a triagonal direction, and moving in that direction until it is stopped by the side of a board, multiverse, or other piece, unicorns capture how they move. Unicorns are slightly better than dragons, because they don't need multiverses to move and can create them on their own by simply traveling to the past on their timeline. In standard variants they are still not worth much, because of the non existent 2 dimensional movement option.

## Brawn

Brawns are Pawns that have additional options to capture through time. They can not only just capture by a forward timeline / time diagonal. but by any form of forward diagonal. so for example forward in space / back in time as that is the most potent option, because they can simply checkmate a king that stands in front of them if they get supported by another piece so the king cant take the Brawn.

## Common King

Common King = same movement as the king, but it can't be check mated

## Royal Queen

Royal Queen = same movement as a queen, but it can be check mated