| 1 | p.boxed |
| 2 | | The player in second has a different set of pieces, |
| 3 | | mostly coming from Chinese and Korean chess. |
| 4 | |
| 5 | p. |
| 6 | Synochess is a chess variant designed in 2020 by Couch Tomato. |
| 7 | The idea of the game was to create a variant where the western chess army |
| 8 | can fight against the xiangqi or Chinese chess army in a fair manner. |
| 9 | In this game, the white army represents the western chess side and is |
| 10 | called the Kingdom, while the black army represents an amalgamation of |
| 11 | xiangqi and janggi (Korean chess) and is called the Dynasty. |
| 12 | |
| 13 | p. |
| 14 | The name Synochess is based off an earlier name, Sinochess, but it was |
| 15 | changed as the Dynasty became less "Sino" (as in Chinese) and more a |
| 16 | mixture of Chinese and Korean. Instead, the prefix syn- means together, |
| 17 | and the game represents two different historic branches of chess coming |
| 18 | together into one. |
| 19 | |
| 20 | ul |
| 21 | li The Kingdom (white) always moves first. |
| 22 | li The Dynasty (black) cannot castle. |
| 23 | li. |
| 24 | Kingdom pawns can only promote to their own pieces (queen, rook, knight, |
| 25 | bishop). Dynasty soldiers do not promote. |
| 26 | |
| 27 | h3 Special Rules |
| 28 | |
| 29 | ul |
| 30 | li. |
| 31 | King Faceoff — As in Xiangqi, Kings may not face each other |
| 32 | (on a file or rank) without intervening pieces. |
| 33 | li. |
| 34 | Reinforcement Soldiers — Black starts with two soldiers in hand. |
| 35 | Instead of moving a piece on the board, the Dynasty player can drop a |
| 36 | soldier onto an open square in rank 5 (Dynasty's 4th rank). |
| 37 | li. |
| 38 | Campmate — A king that reaches the final rank (without moving |
| 39 | into check) wins the game. |
| 40 | li. |
| 41 | Stalemate — As in Xiangqi, stalemates |
| 42 | and moves repetitions are a loss. |
| 43 | |
| 44 | h3 Dynasty Pieces |
| 45 | |
| 46 | p. |
| 47 | There are four new units unique to the Dynasty: 6 Soldiers (2 start in |
| 48 | hand), 2 Cannons, 2 Elephants, and 1 Advisor. |
| 49 | p. |
| 50 | The Chariots are equal to the Rooks and use the same abbreviation (R) |
| 51 | — the difference is purely cosmetic. Similarly, the Kings are the |
| 52 | same, but just appear different. |
| 53 | |
| 54 | p. |
| 55 | Details and diagrams of each piece are below. |
| 56 | |
| 57 | p TODO: continue |
| 58 | |
| 59 | p https://www.pychess.org/variant/synochess |