Standard Wildebeest Chess

Standard Wildebeest Chess — starting position

https://engine.moddable.games/play/?game=chess&variant=wildebeest

Played on an 11×10 board (files a–k, ranks 1–10). Each side has 11 pawns and an expanded back rank including two new fairy pieces.

Starting Position

r n c w q k w c n r  (rank 10 — Black)
p p p p p p p p p p p  (rank 9)
. . . . . . . . . . .  (ranks 8–3)
. . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . .
P P P P P P P P P P P  (rank 2)
R N C W Q K W C N R  (rank 1 — White)

Back rank (a–k): Rook, Knight, Camel, Wildebeest, Queen, King, Wildebeest, Camel, Knight, Rook (11 squares, no bishop slot — Camels fill that role).

Pieces

Camel ©

Property	Rule
Leap	(3,1) — 3 squares in one direction, 1 perpendicular
Jumping	Yes — cannot be blocked
Colour-binding	Yes — always lands on same colour
Capture	Lands on target square

The Camel is the (3,1) analogue of the Knight (2,1). With two Camels per side (one on each colour binding), both colours of Camel square are covered.

Wildebeest (W)

Property	Rule
Move	Any Knight leap (2,1) OR any Camel leap (3,1)
Jumping	Yes — leaps
Colour-binding	No — alternates colours on knight moves, maintains colour on camel moves
Capture	Lands on target square

The Wildebeest is roughly equivalent in value to a rook.

Standard Pieces

Rooks, Knights, Queen, and King move and capture as in standard chess.

Pawns

11 pawns per side (one per file, a–k)
May advance one or two squares from starting position (rank 2 / rank 9)
Capture diagonally forward
En passant applies
Promotion on ranks 10 (Black) / 1 (White) to: Queen, Rook, Camel, Knight, or Wildebeest

Castling

Castling is not available in the standard Wildebeest Chess setup (the King is not adjacent to a corner Rook in the same way; no castling rule has been defined by Schmittberger for this layout).

Win Condition

Checkmate the opponent’s King. Stalemate = draw.

Engine Notes

Implemented in: Jocly (open source, JavaScript), zrflib (Zillions of Games), chess-programming wiki examples. FEN: standard coordinate system extended to 11 files (a–k). The board is 11 × 10; rank and file notation follows the same conventions as standard chess.

Attribution

Wildebeest Chess designed by R. Wayne Schmittberger. Published in New Rules for Classic Games (Wiley, 1992). Rules described as public domain by multiple open-source implementations (Jocly, zrflib). Primary sources: Wikipedia (Wildebeest chess); Jocly source (wildebeest.js).