How To Play Trice's Chess

The black King highlighted in yellow at the end of the animation shown above is checkmated. The Archbishop issues a check as a Bishop, while simultaneously denying flight squares via its Knight component.

Notice there are no other pieces in the vicinity of the conquered King. This makes the Archbishop one of the most underrated pieces in Trice's Chess. It is worth much more than the sum of its parts.

How the Archbishop Moves Pawns Knights Bishops Archbishops Chancellors Queens Kings

The animation above shows all of the moves available for a centralized Archbishop.

Notice there are 22 possible destinations for it from one square on an open board. Now try to imagine every square it could reach in 2 moves!

Being able to jump over pieces and change the color on which the Bishop component operates is a powerful combination unavailable in regular 8x8 chess.

The next sections show how to prepare to launch your Archbishop in the opening phase of the game.

The Archbishop Sneak Attack Pawns Knights Bishops Archbishops Chancellors Queens Kings

Even players aware of the deadly solo-checkmate potential associated with the Archbishop will occasionally get blasted off of the board still.

One of the most common oversights is the Queenside Castling Blunder as illustrated in the animation shown above.

Without a black Knight on the c6 square to guard the a7 square, an Archbishop can instantly checkmate a king that castled queenside.

This in turn means you must safeguard this Knight if the opponent's Archbishop is positioned to inflict such a deadly thrashing!

When the "Obvious" Sneak Attack Just Barely Misses Pawns Knights Bishops Archbishops Chancellors Queens Kings

Once you learn the deadly solo-checkmate pattern of the Archbishop, you will start "seeing it everywhere." Consider the starting position shown in the animation above.

There's a black Knight on c6 guarding the a7 square. The white Archbishop is in place to deliver the deadly checkmate if this Knight was gone.

So can't white just play Bxc6 to remove that Knight, then the Archbishop checkmate is there?

Only if black messes up and plays bxc6? which is a game-ending blunder. Pushing the pawn from b7-b6 instead stops the solo-checkmate, but black will still lose (although more slowly).

The final frame in the animation is tinged with light purple squares to show that the line of play is erroneous.

When a different Sneak Attack Checkmates in 2 moves Pawns Knights Bishops Archbishops Chancellors Queens Kings

To make things even more confusing, suppose I told you that there was a mate in 2 from the prior starting position, again shown in the animation above?

Don't overvalue the Archbishop in an attempt to "force" the solo-checkmate idea! Sacrificing this Archbishop on move 1 leads to the win one move later.

Watch all of the animations on this page over and over if you must. These are important tactics that will come up during your own games.

Deploying Your Archbishop Properly Pawns Knights Bishops Rooks Chancellors Queens Kings

In the animated example shown above, you can see that each Archbishop is located in such a way as to defend the h-file from a potential incursion by an enemy Knight.

The white Archbishop defends the h2 square and the black Archbishop defends the h7 square.

If an enemy Knight gets too close, it could threaten capturing with check, then winning the Rook. This was also covered a great deal in the section describing the moves of the Knights at the bottom of that page.

In the opening phase of Trice's Chess, each side can try to thwart the kingside development of the other by employing this motif. A player must make a contingency plan for this.

A further elaboration of this notion is shown below.

At some point in time, the newcomer will have a "light bulb moment" when they realize you can deploy the Archbishop and still guard against a fork.

Almost without hesitation, they will make the move Af6 as shown above. From the f6 square, the black Archbishop guards h7 from a potential fork.

However, this satisfaction is short-lived, as white has Bg5 to chase away the Archbishop, since the white Knight on f3 protects the Bishop now on g5.

In most cases, black will have to suffer the indignation of retreating back to the g8 square to protect h7 from the dreaded knight fork.

So how should one deploy their Archbishop safely? Must we always retreat when receiving such threats? Surprisingly, no! With a little practice and familiarity, you can actual set traps by allowing the dreaded knight fork.

Shown above we have the quintessential example of baiting an opponent into the dreaded knight fork which will lose your Rook but with the game!

It is black to move, and he notices that his Archbishop is holding the h7 square, as shown in the animation.

He's a clever player, and is aware that he can also guard the h7 square with his Archbishop on the f6 square. But can't the Archbishop be chased from there? Yes!

But our clever black player LOOKS AHEAD and notices a glaring weakness on the board, SHOULD WHITE CHASE THE ARCHBISHOP.

If white plays Bg5 then the g3 square is unprotected! Furthermore, black can play Ah5 and attack g3 with deadly force. But then it is white to move. Won't he see the attack?

Most likely not! White will be so focussed on forking and winning the black Rook, possibly even mentally congratulating himself in the process, that he'd probably play Nxh7+ in an instant.

The hidden Archbishop Checkmate is further disguised by the pinned white Knight being unable to play Nxg3 since the distant black Bishop has pinned it.

Trice's Chess contains many such clever attacks just waiting for the creating player to discover!

Watch the animation above and notice how placing the Archbishop onto the second rank in the f-file was the way both players chose to get their Archbishops into play.

1. d4 Nh6 2. Nh3 d5 3. f3 Nc6 4. g4 g6 5. Be3 Bg7 6. Bg2 f6 7. Nc3 Af7 8. Af2 O-O 9. O-O Bd7