Janus Chess

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Description

Popular in Europe, Janus Chess is played on a 10x8 board using all the standard chessmen plus 2 Janus pieces. These combine the powers of bishop and knight, and are placed in between the rooks and knights on the board (b1 and i1 for white, b8 and i8 for black). The king and queen are reversed compared to FIDE Chess (King on e1 and Queen on f1 for White, King on e8 and queen on f8 for black) Note that the Janus piece can checkmate the enemy king unaided, if the king is in a corner. Several chess grandmasters play this game, including Victor Korchnoi and Peter Leko. Janus Chess was invented in 1978 by Werner Schöndorf.