Raumschach SIII4 B is the preferred 4×4×4 arrangement of Space Chess by Ferdinand Maack (1861–1930), from his 1913 Rules of Raumschach. The board has 64 cells across four levels. There is no Unicorn piece; the Queen combines Rook, Bishop, and corner-moves.
Game type:Friendly
FriendlyClassicalRapidBlitz
No time control. Play at your own pace.
Play as:
Strength:The Machine
BoyProdigyChallengerChampionThe Machine
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Boy — plays a random legal move. Capablanca at age four, imitating the pieces his father moved. Prodigy — pure talent, high noise (±100 cp). Capablanca at thirteen, beating the Cuban champion on instinct alone, before any formal study. Challenger — refined and principled, moderate noise (±35 cp). Capablanca in his tournament prime (1909–1919), dominant but not yet flawless. Champion — near-perfect positional play, low noise (±8 cp). Capablanca as world champion (1921–1927), eight years unbeaten. The Machine — no noise; decisions are fully determined by static evaluation. Capablanca at his mechanical peak — the moves arrived effortlessly, as if the position contained only one correct answer.
Raumcapa (Influence Engine) — a principle-only engine. No minimax or search tree; all evaluation terms derive from φ(d)=1/(1+d) Chebyshev-decayed piece influence fields. See its documentation.
Show piece movement rules ▾
Movement is explained best in relation to a cube. A cube has 6 faces, 12 edges, and 8 corners.
Rook () — moves through faces of a cube. Bishop () — moves through edges of a cube. Queen () — moves as a Rook, Bishop, or through corners of a cube (no Unicorn piece exists in SIII4). King () — moves as a Queen but only 1 step. Knight () — on the same level, moves 2 steps through a face then 1 step through an orthogonal face; when changing levels, moves triagonally (1 step through a corner of a cube, shifting 1 square along all three axes simultaneously). In both cases it leaps from its origin to its destination. Pawn () — moves 1 step through a face toward its promotion rank (level δ rank 4 for White, level α rank 1 for Black), or 1 step through a face by changing level (up or down). Thus a White Pawn at γc2 has 3 possible moves: forward (γc3), up (δc2), or down (βc2). Or, each Pawn captures 1 step through an edge toward its promotion rank or by changing level. Thus a White Pawn at γc2 has 4 possible captures: γb3, γd3, δc3, βc3.
Move notation:FigurineLevelFileRank – LevelFileRank (Maack, 1908; figurine notation) Piece figurines: ♖︎ = Rook ♗︎ = Bishop ♕︎ = Queen ♔︎ = King ♘︎ = Knight ♙︎ = Pawn Levels: α (bottom, White home) through δ (top, Black home) Example: The Knight on level α, file b, rank 1 moves to level β, file c, rank 2. ♘︎αb1–βc2 Capture: Replace – with × when a piece is captured. e.g. ♖︎αa1×βa1 Promotion: Append =♕︎ when a Pawn is promoted. e.g. ♙︎δa3–δa4=♕︎ Check: Append † when the King is in check. e.g. ♕︎βc1–γc3† Boardmate: Append †† when the King is in check and mated on its current level, but may flee to an adjacent level. e.g. ♕︎γc2–δc2†† Spacemate: Append ††† when the King is in check and mated on its current level, and cannot flee to an adjacent level; the game is over. e.g. ♕︎βc2–δc3††† Stalemate: Append ≡ when there are no legal moves for any piece and the King is not in check; the game is drawn. (Our addition; Maack did not symbolize stalemate.) Move numbers count White’s move first (figurines in alabaster), then Black’s (figurines in amethyst); e.g. 1. ♘︎αb1–βc3 ♘︎δb4–γa3
Full move list:
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