Triangular Chess Triangular Chess Triangular Chess is a chess variant for two players invented by George R. Dekle, Sr. in 1986. The game is played on a hexagon-shaped gameboard comprising 96 triangular cells. Each player commands a full set of chess pieces in addition to three extra pawns and a "unicorn". Triangular Chess and its variation Tri-Chess were included in "World Game Review" No. 10 edited by Michael Keller. The starting setup is as shown. As in chess, White moves first and the object is checkmate. Other standard conventions apply as well, including castling, a pawn's initial two-step option, "en passant", and
Janus Chess checkmate cannot be . Due to the extra pieces, each player starts the game with considerably more " power" compared to standard chess; however, the game has only a slightly higher material "power density", since there is more room for players to maneuver pieces because of the larger board (10×8 = 80 squares). Due to the different board and pieces, players are unable to use normal chess opening theory, and chess tablebases have limited value in the endgame. Janus Chess has been popular in Europe with regular tournaments drawing strong players. Several chess grandmasters have played this game including Viktor