Raumschach Variants

The variants listed here are historical versions of Raumschach, by Dr. Ferdinand Maack, before he settled on the “Normal Form” of Raumschach. He described his variants, typically, as S^III₅ A, where “S” was short for “schach” (chess), the numerator “III” meant three-dimensions, the denominator indicated the space (such as 5 means 5 squares per board), and lastly “A” (or “B” or “C”) indicated a particular version. So, S^III₅ A means version A of three-dimensional chess on boards with 5 spaces.

Normal Form (1926)

This is the “Normal Form” of Raumschach, the final and mature version of three-dimensional chess, and it is 5×5×5. In 1926, Thomas Rayner Dawson (1889–1951) described it in The Chess Amateur, and in 1969 Anthony Dickins (1914–1987) included it in his book, A Guide to Fairy Chess.

S^III₄ A (1913)

Ferdinand Maack referred to this as the “crowded” version of 4×4×4 Raumschach. Note that the Knight moves in the traditional L-shape on the same level, but triagonally between levels.

S^III₄ B (1913)

Ferdinand Maack recommended this as the preferred version of 4×4×4 Raumschach. Note that the Knight moves in the traditional L-shape on the same level, but triagonally between levels.

S^III₅ A (1913)

This is a variant of 5×5×5 Raumschach.

S^III₇ (1919)

This is a variant of 7×7×7 Raumschach that introduces a new chess piece, the Giraffe.

S^III₈ (1908)

This is a variant of 8×8×8 Raumschach.