Raumschach Sᴵᴵᴵ₅ · Normal Form (1926)

Raumschach

S^III₅ · Normal Form · 1926

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:

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.
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 to advance through a face toward its promotion rank, which is level E rank 5 (White) or level A rank 1 (Black). Thus a White Pawn at Cc3 has 2 possible moves: forward (Cc4) or upward (Dc3). Or, each Pawn moves 1 step to capture through an edge toward its promotion rank. Thus a White Pawn at Cc3 has 5 possible captures: Cb4, Cd4, Db3, Dc4, Dd3.

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. Titles: See Charter § IX.

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: A (bottom, White home) through E (top, Black home)
Example: The Knight on level A, file b, rank 1 moves to level B, file c, rank 3. ♘︎Ab1–Bc3
Capture: Replace – with × when a piece is captured. e.g. ♖︎Aa1×Ba1
Promotion: Append =♕︎ when a Pawn is promoted. e.g. ♙︎Ea4–Ea5=♕︎
Check: Append † when the King is in check. e.g. ♕︎Bc1–Cc4†
Boardmate: Append †† when the King is in check and mated on its current level, but may flee to an adjacent level. e.g. ♕︎Cc3–Dc3††
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. ♕︎Bc2–Dc4†††
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. ♘︎Ab1–Bc3 ♘︎Eb5–Dd3