Raumschach: Rules and Documentation
Documentation for Three-Dimensional Chess
International Raumschach Federation · 2026
As Raumschach matured, so did its rules and documentation. The final form of
the game is Raumschach in its “Normal Form,” and its rules are
presented by Dickins (1969), who cited articles from The Chess Amateur,
1926, by Thomas Rayner Dawson (1889–1951). But before its
“Normal Form” were many versions, and of course rules and
documentation. Here, entries are presented chronologically.
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Instructions for Raumschach
(1908)
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Dr. Ferdinand Maack published Anleitung zum Raumschach:
Dreidimensionales Schachspiel (1908), the “Instructions for
Raumschach: Three-Dimensional Chess Game”. Herein, he presented
8×8×8 Raumschach (referred to later as
SIII8).
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Game Rules of Raumschach [German]
(1913)
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Dr. Ferdinand Maack published Spielregeln zum Raumschach (1913),
the “Game Rules of Raumschach”. Herein, he presented both
4×4×4 Raumschach (versions SIII4 A
and SIII4 B) and 5×5×5 Raumschach
(version SIII5 A).
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Normal Form — Dawson/Dickins
(1926; 1969)
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In A Guide to Fairy Chess (1969/71, pp. 16–18), Anthony
Dickins (1914–1987) printed the rules reported by Thomas Rayner
Dawson (The Chess Amateur, 1926) for the “Normal Form”
of Raumschach, the canonical version of the game of three-dimensional
chess.
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Normal Form — Pritchard
(2007)
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In The Classified Encyclopedia of Chess Variants (2007, p. 229),
D. B. Pritchard provided the rules for the “Normal Form” of
Raumschach.