Three player chess is played on a
hexagonal board with three sets of chessmen. Unlike traditional chess, each
queen starts to the right of her king, following the direction of play.
The easiest way to imagining the board layout is to picture a normal chess board split into two halves along the line that seperates the king and queen. Up until half way up the board, this line is the same as in normal chess, but halfway up the board, the two sides on either side of the line diverge.
This effect is the same for all three players.
Due to the shape of the board and this divergence, the board has no squares as such, although it is covered in four-sided polygons. The centre of the board looks like a mitsubishi logo with each diagonal branching in two directions. This is great for pawns.
The layout of the board effects the way the pieces move considerably. Pieces that move diagonally can only follow a straight line when moving from a diagonal line that disects a corner. All other diagonals are curved, creating great opertunitys for surprise attack. Knights, while behaving fairly normally for the most part can do some amazing manuvers around the centre of the board.
Tactically, it is quite different to traditional chess, as most often it pays to play as submissivley as posible until one other player is dead. Once that player is dead, their peices stay on the board until they are taken, with the exception of the king. He is removed the moment he is check mate. The remaining dead pieces slow the other players by forcing them to stop, and can also be used to get a king in checkmate as they are still considered a security risk.
This game is well worth a try for anyone who likes chess.