Lecce's Game

This new chess-based way of playing is named Scacchi Leccesi, or also, translated in english: Lecce's Game (Lecce is a small city in the South-East of Italy) and it was created in this city from the ideas of a group of players, all members of the Amateur Chess Club LUPIAE 1970. Lecce's Game is born officially at the beginning of 2023, after a long period of thinking. This could not be a novelty in the Eterodox Chess World, but we think that this new way of playing, made by amateurs, for amateurs, could represent a new way of approaching traditional chess. The board used for Lecce's Game is smaller than a traditional 8 by 8 one, and a difficulty is the almost total absence of space to move the pieces, and to manage in particular the opening section of a game. The creators of this game, when they returned to play a traditional chess game, have noticed immediately how much space is there given to move the pieces!

The starting position

In general, chess rules will be applied in Lecce's Game. But there are also some differences. Lecce's board is 4 by 8. The columns are indicated left to right by the first four letters of alphabet A, B, C, D while the rows by the numbers from 1 to 8, and so it's like a half of a traditional chessboard. The King K, the Rook R, the Queen Q, the Bishop B, the Pawn move and capture like traditional chess pieces. There is no Knight, but instead there is a new piece called the LUPA L (Lupa means female wolf). The idea of calling the new piece Lupa is because one of the symbols of the city is a female wolf passing under a tree. (See next image, where is shown the mosaic of the central square of Lecce)

mosaic of the wolf, Saint Oronzo Square, Lecce, Italy

The so-called piece Lupa moves and captures DIAGONALLY one step and jumps and captures 2 steps VERTICALLY, HORIZONTALLY or DIAGONALLY (it is the union of the following fairy pieces: Alfil, Dabbaba and Ferz). Notice that, like the Bishop, the Lupa never leaves the color of the starting square: there will be in fact a light-square Lupa and a dark-square Lupa. At start, the players will have KING, QUEEN, 2 ROOKS, 2 BISHOPS, 2 LUPAS, 4 PAWNS, so there will be 12 pieces placed in three rows. There is white and there is black, and the goal of the game is still to give to the opponent a checkmate!

CASTLE: The castle is slightly different from traditional one. The short castle O-O will be made by inverting the positions of King and King's Rook: the King will go from C1 to D1 (from C8 to D8 for Black), and the King's Rook from D1 to C1 (from D8 to C8 for Black). The castle is permitted when both C1 and D1 (C8 and D8) are not under attack. Notice that short castle is a legal move from the beginning of a game (just because at move 1 the squares C1 and D1 (C8 and D8 for Black) are not under attack). Given this, however another condition to permit the castle is that the two pieces have not still been moved singularly (just like traditional chess). The long castle O-O-O is made by moving the King from C1 to B1 (from C8 to B8 the Black side) and the Queen's Rook from A1 to C1 (from A8 to C8 Black side). Also this type of castle is permitted only if the two pieces have not been moved singularly, if the squares C1 and B1 (C8 and B8 Black side) are not attacked, and lastly if B1 (B8) is empty.

We are planning to make some tournaments in our city and also to make a small website where will be possible to play online.

We invite all the lichess players to try this eterodox chess variant (we already made the boards 4x8 in plywood, but you could try the game just putting the pieces on a side of your 8x8 boards ;) )

Any comment is appreciated!

ap87