Raumschach SIII8 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:
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 5 seconds or more per move. RSM (Raumschachmeister) — iterative deepening to 5 plies; may think for 6 seconds or more per move. GRSM (Großraumschachmeister) — iterative deepening to 6 plies; may think for 15 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. Knight () — moves through corners of a cube, sliding any distance (like the Rook and Bishop). There is no Unicorn piece in SIII8; 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.
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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 ♕︎ = 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 white), then Black’s (figurines in purple); e.g. 1. ♕︎δd1–δd4 ♗︎αf8–βf7
Full move list:
Downloads a .rgn file you can save, share, or submit to the IRF.