Raumschach (German for “Space Chess”) is a game of three-dimensional chess by Ferdinand Maack (1861–1930). It is the first 3D variant of chess with complete rules that are extant.
Game type:Friendly
FriendlyClassicalRapidBlitz
No time control. Play at your own pace.
Play as:
AI strength:Average
BeginnerWeakAverageStrongRSMGRSM
Show AI strength descriptions ▾
Beginner — plays randomly from legal moves; good for learning the pieces and rules. Weak — iterative deepening to 2 plies; plays reasonable moves instantly. Average — iterative deepening to 3 plies; a genuine challenge, may think for 1 second or more per move. Strong — iterative deepening to 4 plies; may think for 3 seconds or more per move. RSM (Raumschachmeister) — iterative deepening to 5 plies; may think for 4 seconds or more per move. GRSM (Großraumschachmeister) — iterative deepening to 6 plies; may think for 12 seconds or more per move.
Raumfischer is the name of this Raumschach engine, which is designed to imitate the playing style of Bobby Fischer, but in the context of Raumschach. For details on this algorithm, please 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. Unicorn () — moves through corners of a cube. Queen () — moves as a Rook, Bishop, or Unicorn. King () — moves as a Queen but only 1 step. Knight () — moves 2 steps through a face, then 1 step through an orthogonal face, leaping from its origin to its destination. Pawn () — moves 1 step through a face toward its promotion rank (level ε rank 5 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 γc3 has 3 possible moves: forward (γc4), up a level (δc3), or down a level (βc3). Or, each Pawn captures 1 step through an edge toward its promotion rank or by changing level (up or down). Thus a White Pawn at γc3 has 4 possible captures: γb4, γd4, δc4, βc4.
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Raumschach
White to move
♔︎White
90:00
Classical 90 + 30
♔︎Black
90:00
White captured:
Black captured:
Move List:How to read the move list ▾
Move notation:FigurineLevelFileRank – LevelFileRank (Maack, 1908; figurine notation) Piece figurines: ♖︎ = Rook ♗︎ = Bishop 🨢 = Unicorn ♕︎ = Queen ♔︎ = King ♘︎ = Knight ♙︎ = Pawn Levels: α (bottom, White home) through ε (top, Black home) Example: The Knight on level α, file b, rank 1 moves to level β, file c, rank 3. ♘︎αb1–βc3 Capture: Replace – with × when a piece is captured. e.g. ♖︎αa1×βa1 Promotion: Append =♕︎ when a Pawn is promoted. e.g. ♙︎εa4–εa5=♕︎ Check: Append † when the King is in check. e.g. ♕︎βc1–γc4† Boardmate: Append †† when the King is in check and mated on its current level, but may flee to an adjacent level. e.g. ♕︎γc3–δc3†† 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–δc4††† 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 white), then Black’s (figurines in purple); e.g. 1. ♘︎αb1–βc3 ♘︎εb5–δd3
Full move list:
Downloads a .rgn file you can save, share, or submit to the IRF.