US3533627A

US3533627A - Three player chess game board

Info

Publication number: US3533627A
Application number: US593496A
Authority: US
Inventors: Gene Deffenbaugh; David G Frederick
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 1966-11-10
Filing date: 1966-11-10
Publication date: 1970-10-13
Anticipated expiration: 1987-10-13

Description

Oct. 13, 1970 G. DEFFENBAUGH ETAL 3,533,627

THREE PLAYER CHESS GAME BOARD Filed Nov. 10. 1966 WWW m H 7 u WWII I I5 Y Ill IVII'S l h N INVENTORS Q W 2 GENE DEFFE UGH Q Y DAVID [1 l x l G. FRED CK Ca M14 mad TORNEYS United States Patent Ohio Filed Nov. 10, 1966, Ser. No. 593,496 Int. Cl. A6315 3/02 US. Cl. 273131 3 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE Game apparatus comprising a board and chess pieces whereby each of three players may simultaneously compete against the other two.

The board is in the shape of a six sided polygon of which three relatively long sides alternate with three relatively short sides and in which the relatively short sides are of the length of the relatively long sides. The face of the board is divided into 142 equilateral triangles, approximately one-third being of one color, approximately one third being of a second color, and the remaining approximately one third being of a third color. Used with the board are three sets of chessmen, each set having a different color, and the color of each set corresponding to one of the colors on the board. The three chess sets are conventional, each having eight pawns and eight pieces. A similar board for playing checkers is shown in which the relatively short sides are the length of the relatively long sides and which is divided into 117 spaces approximately half of one color uniformly distributed throughout the other half of a second color.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION When chess is played on the conventional two color square board, all the spaces are used. The duality of space colors often corresponds to a duality of piece colors. Thus the black queen begins on a dark space and the white queen begins on a light space.

Often three persons are together and all of them enjoy playing chess or checkers. If the conventional board is used, one of these three persons is relegated to being merely an observer rather than a participant.

Others have attempted to invent game boards on which three persons may participate. However, these boards are limited by one or more of several difiiculties some of which are discussed below.

Some boards have voids or large irregular unused portions.

Some prior art three player boards do not have spaces each of which has one of three colors to correspond to three sets of chess pieces.

Finally, a factor which is very important to a chess player is that many prior art boards, especially those having circular or regular hexagonal playing spaces, do not app ar to provide for an arrangement by which the movement of a rook is different from the movement of a bishop.

OBJECTS It is therefore an object of our invention to provide new and useful game apparatus including boards having patterns which are not limited by any of the difiiculties described above.

Further objects and features of our invention will be apparent from the following specifications and claims when considered in connection with the accompanying drawings illustrating several embodiments of our invention.

We have found that the foregoing objects may be attained with a game apparatus having chessmen and 3,533,627 Patented Oct. 13, 1970 "ice having a game board therefor with a surface, lines on the surface forming a plurality of triangles, every triangle having at least two sides identical with the sides of two other triangles, and at least two of its vertices coincident with the vertic s of at least two other triangles; and indicia in the triangles to distinguish some of the triangles from other triangles.

In the drawings:

FIG. 1 is a plan view of a game board playing field pattern on which three persons may participate in a game of checkers.

FIG, 2 is a plan view of a game board playing field pattern constructed according to our invention on which three persons may participate in a game of chess.

DETAILED DESCRIPTIONCHECKERBOARD In FIG. 1 we have shown a three player checkerboard pattern having a plurality of triangular playing spaces. The circular checker playing pieces are shown in the positions they occupy before a game has begun. There are three sets of playing pieces each set having a different color which is indicated by conventional drafting symbols.

The board pattern shown in FIG. 1 has thereon a plurality of equilateral triangular playing spaces, fiftyseven of which are white and sixty of which are red. The periphery of the board defines a six sided polygon having sides alternately three and six units in length. The side of each triangle defines one unit of length.

For purposes of illustration, the rows of playing spaces are numbered and the columns of playing spaces have been assigned letters. For example, row 2 is the row of playing spaces which is between two parallel lines and contains the second row of white checkers.

A column is a column of triangular playing spaces which alternately share vertices with other triangular playing spaces in the same column and alternately share sides opposite the shared vertices with other triangular playing spaces in the same column. Column H, for example, contains the playing space in row 9 which has the end black checker of the second (inner) row of black checkers. It also has the red playing space in row 1 which has one of the middle white checkers of the first (outer) row of white checkers.

The playing spaces along every row and along every column are alternately colored red and white. Obviously other combinations of two colors could be used, such as black and red or black and white. Like a conventional checkerboard pattern, no two playing spaces of the same color have an identical side. Every playing space has one or more vertices which are coincident with vertices of playing spaces having the same color.

By such an arrangement of spaces and colors, we not only have provided a board having features which are similar to the features of a conventional checkerboard but also have, unlike prior inventors, provided them in a game board playing field pattern on which three persons can participate in the game.

RULES OF THE CHECKER GAME The rules governing the movement of the checkers may preferably be analogous to the rules on a conventional board. The checker positioning may be limited to the playing spaces of one color. As shown in FIG. 1, the checkers are confined to the red spaces, and, throughout a normal game as we propose it to be played with the board and checkers of FIG. 1, the game is confined to the red spaces.

A checker game is thus begun by positioning the checkers on the red spaces of the board as shown in FIG. 1. A first player begins by making his first move. A second player makes his move and the third player makes his 3 move. The players then continue in turn making their moves one move at a time.

The base line of a set of checkers is that peripheral line which is nearest to and parallel to a line passing through a row of checkers as they are positioned before any moves are made. Each set of checkers has its own base line.

To execute a non-jumping move, a checker may be moved from the triangular playing space on which it had been previously placed, along a line parallel to either one of the two sides of the said triangular playing space which are not parallel to its base line, away from its base line, to the next space having the same color in it as the space from which the checker began. For example, the red checker on space N could move either to space L5 or to space M4. From space L5 it could move either to space K4 or to space J5.

A checker of one color may jump a checker of either other color which is on a playing space to which the jumping checker could make a non-jumping move if there were no jumped checker on that space. A jump is accomplished by moving the jumping checker in a single direction through the space occupied by the opposing jumped checker to the next space thereafter. This next space thereafter must have been empty in order to make a jump. The jumped checker is then removed from the board. A move may consist of several jumps. Although each individual jump must be along one straight line, any move consisting of a plurality of jumps may be along dilferent straight lines. For example, if the only checkers on the board were a white checker at space H3, a black checker at space G8, and red checkers at spaces I6 and I4, then the white checker could jump the remaining checkers by jumping first to space J5 and then to space H7, and then to space F9.

A king is acquired when any checker reaches a space having a vertex on the peripheral line opposite to and parallel with the base line of the set to which the checker belongs. A king moves like any other piece except that a king may move backward as well as forward (i.e., is not required to move away from its base line). A game is won when the one checker (or all of the checkers) remaining on the board is (or are) of one color only.

As in conventional checkers, each checker which is not a king has a choice of only two spaces to which it may move without jumping. As in conventional checkers there are no voids or non-playing areas between opposing sets of checkers. As in conventional checkers, the board has two sets of uniformly distributed colored spaces and the game is confined to one of such sets. A game of checkers may be played almost exactly as it is played on a conventional board except that three persons may play on our board. Alternately checkers may be played on our board by two persons only. This may be done after the checkers of one of three players have been eliminated.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION-CHESSBOARD In FIG. 2 we have shown a chessboard playing field pattern constructed according to our invention. As before, we have numbered and assigned letters to the rows and columns. The reversed arrangement of letters U and R has no particular significance. FIG. 2 shows that the chessboard is a six sided polygon having peripheral sides alternately three and seven units in length and containing a plurality of equilateral triangular playing spaces. Each playing space is one of three dilferent colors. The colors are distributed so that no spaces with the same color have identical line segment sides. Therefore adjacent triangles (i.e., two triangles having a single line segment as a side of each) always have difierent colors. Each of the three colors corresponds to one of the three sets of chess men.

The three sets of chess men used on our board are conventional chess men and are shown in FIG. 2 as positioned after each player has made one move.

The base line for each set is that peripheral line nearest to and parallel to a line passing through a row of chess 4 men of the same set or color standing in their beginning positions.

The color of each set of pieces is indicated by the legend nearest its base line in FIG. 2.

The first rank for each set of pieces is that row of playing spaces having a vertex but not a side on its base line. All the spaces defining the first rank of each set have the same color as the color of the set. The positioning of the pieces in the first rank may preferably be the same as in conventional chess except that the queen is always placed to the kings left when viewed from the sets base line. As in conventional chess, the pawns are positioned immediately inward of the major pieces on spaces having a side identical with a side of the first rank spaces (i.e., adjacent spaces).

One of the features of our invention is that, unlike prior three man game boards, our game board provides playing spaces on which chess men may move according to rules which are analogous to and very similar to the rules of conventional chess. Each piece has its own unique rule governing its movement. The rook, the bishop and the queen, for example, have different rules governing their movement.

PREFERRED RULES OF THE CHESS GAME A pawn may move, when not taking another piece, one space in a direction perpendicular to and away from its base line. Optionally with the player, a pawn may be moved two spaces on its first move. We have shown in FIG. 1, as an example, the white pawn on space 4K which has made one move of two spaces from space 2K, the black pawn on space 61 which has made one move of two spaces from space 7F, and the red pawn on space 6L which has made one move of one space from space 7N. The pawn may take a piece or pawn which is on a space adjacent to the space which the pawn occupies but only in a direction parallel to its base line. For example, the white pawn on space 4K could take a piece on either space 4] or space 4L by moving to that space and removing the taken piece.

The king may move one space in a direction perpendicular to any base line to a space having a vertex in common with the space which the king occupies. For example, if a king were on space 46, it could move to any one of the following spaces: 56; 36; 3E; 4H; 4F; or 3-1.

The rook may move parallel to any base line as many spaces as desired so far as the path is unobstructed.

The bishop may move perpendicularly to any base line as many spaces as desired so far as the path is unobstructed.

The knight is the only piece which can jump over other pieces. It may, according to our preferred rules, move two spaces perpendicularly to any base line and then one space parallel to the base line. For example, a knight positioned at space 5] could move to any of the following spaces: 7-I; 7K; 6H; 56; 4F; 3G; 3-I; 3K; 3M; 4N; 5M; or 6L.

The queen may move as many spaces as desired, so far as unobstructed, in any direction in a straight line either parallel to any base line or perpendicular to any base line.

The remaining rules are the same as in conventional chess. For example, when a piece or pawn is taken, the piece or pawn taken is removed from the board and the piece or pawn which takes is placed on the space from which the piece or pawn is removed. A pawn may not take a pawn or piece occupying a space to which it could normally move if such a space were unobstructed nor can it move to an unoccupied space on which it could take a piece or pawn if such piece or pawn were on such space. No piece or pawn can take a piece or pawn of its own color.

A piece, on the other hand, can take any piece or pawn of another player occupying a space to which it can move.

Neither a piece (excepting a knight) nor a pawn can jump over any piece or pawn of the same or any other color.

The king cannot move to a space in which it could be taken by an opposing players pawn or piece.

We prefer in our rules that where a king is checkmated, the king is removed from the board, the pieces and pawns of the same color remain stationary on the board unless captured by an opposing piece or pawn, and the player of the checkmated king retires from the contest. However, if desired the pieces and pawns of the defeated king could be removed with the king.

We prefer in castling that the king move two spaces of its own color toward one of the rooks and such rook move to the opposite side of the king on the same colored triangle.

It is to be further understood that while the detailed drawings and specific examples given describe preferred embodiments of our invention, they are for the purpose of illustration only, that the invention is not limited to the precise details and conditions disclosed and that various changes may be made therein without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention which is defined by the following claims.

We claim:

1. A game apparatus comprising a game board and three complete sets of chessmen positioned on said board,

(a) said board having a planar comprising:

(1) a polygon having six sides;

(2) triangular playing spaces therein uniformly occupying the total area of the interior of said polygon; and

(3) indicia on said spaces for distinguishing certain of said spaces from other of said spaces, consisting of hree colors wherein approximately one-third of the spaces are designated by one color, another third is surface designated by a second color, and the other third is designated by a third color;

(b) said sets of chessmen each consisting of eight pieces and eight pawns and each set being colored to correspond to one and only one of the indicia colors of the the board.

(0) said spaces being defined by three sets of parallel lines on said planar surface, the lines of each set being at a 60 angle with the lines of the others of said sets, said polygon having border lines belonging to said sets of lines, the border lines being alternately three units and seven units in length, a unit being formed by a side of a triangular playing space.

2. The game apparatus according to claim 1 wherein adjacent triangular playing spaces have different colors therein.

3. The game apparatus according to claim 2 wherein the color in each triangular playing space is different from the color in each triangular playing space with which it has an identical side, and wherein triangular playing spaces having the same color therein are distributed throughout the plurality of triangular playing spaces.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 259,695 6/ 1882 Kingwill 273131 384,195 6/1888 Duryea 273131 1,339,013 5/1920 Bennett 273131 1,704,819 3/1929 Beaman 273-131 3,341,205 9/1967 Dykes 273-131 FOREIGN PATENTS 24,644 1893 Great Britain. 3,214 1902 Great Britain. 3,585 5/ 1919 Netherlands. 2,902 1908 Great Britain.

DELBERT B. LOWE, Primary Examiner-