Raumschach Sᴵᴵᴵ₈ (Maack, 1908)

Raumschach

S^III₈ · Ferdinand Maack, 1908

Raumschach S^III₈ is the original 8×8×8 form of Space Chess by Ferdinand Maack (1861–1930), from his 1908 Instructions for Raumschach. Both armies begin on level α, facing each other across the ranks. There is no Unicorn; the Knight is a corner-sliding rider. Pawns move and capture in all directions, with one restriction on their original square.

Game type: Friendly

FriendlyClassicalRapidBlitz

No time control. Play at your own pace.

Play as:

Strength: The Machine

BoyProdigyChallengerChampionThe Machine

Show strength descriptions ▾

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.
Knight () — moves through corners of a cube, sliding any distance (like the Rook and Bishop). There is no Unicorn piece in S^III₈; the Knight fills this role.
Queen () — moves as a Rook, Bishop, or Knight (26 directions).
King () — moves as a Queen but only 1 step. Castling is forbidden.
Pawn () — moves 1 step rookwise and captures 1 step bishopwise in any direction. Exception: from its original square, a Pawn may not move backward (toward its own back rank) or downward (toward level α). Thus a White Pawn on α rank 2 (original) may move to rank 3, upward to β, or laterally — but not to rank 1. Promotion occurs on rank 1 or rank 8 of any level. No double-step first move.

Calculate Elo[R] rating change ▾

IRF rating system — Elo_R

Player A

Current rating

Rated games played

Player B

Current rating

Rated games played

Result:

Player A →

Player B →

K-factor: 40 (< 30 rated games) 20 (30+ games, rating < 2200) 10 (30+ games, rating ≥ 2200). Starting rating: 1500.

Raumschach S^III₈

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 ♕︎ = Queen ♔︎ = King ♘︎ = Knight ♙︎ = Pawn
Levels: α (bottom) through θ (top); both armies begin on level α
Example: The Queen on level δ, file d, rank 1 moves to level δ, file d, rank 4. ♕︎δd1–δd4
Capture: Replace – with × when a piece is captured. e.g. ♖︎αa1×αa8
Promotion: Append =♕︎ when a Pawn promotes on rank 1 or rank 8 of any level. e.g. ♙︎δa7–δa8=♕︎
Check: Append † when the King is in check. e.g. ♘︎αb1–βb5†
Boardmate: Append †† when the King is in check and mated on its current level, but may flee to an adjacent level. e.g. ♕︎δd4–δd5††
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. ♕︎δf4×αf7†††
Stalemate: Append ≡ when there are no legal moves for any piece and the King is not in check; the game is drawn.
Move numbers count White’s move first (figurines in alabaster), then Black’s (figurines in amethyst); e.g. 1. ♕︎δd1–δd4 ♗︎αf8–βf7