Pawn Blackhole Chess
Origin and concept
Game invented by Adam Corbally and others
This chess variant is played by two players on a standard board and pieces, but the board is treated as a four-way battleground towards the center - with natural movement of pawns to always be towards the center battle - hence black hole.
Setup
Pieces are setup in corner groups Royalty in the corners with queens diagonal to each other on white and kings diagonal on black. The queen should in the right corner from a players perspective. Each royal faces towards the center of the board, making "in front" be along the diagonal.
In front of each royal is the rook (on the same colour as the royal), then to the royal's right is a bishop, and left is a knight.
Then on each grid edge of that corner 4x4, are pawns.
Movement
Royalty, rooks and bishops move as per traditional chess.
Knights now move "forward two and across one" but according to the diagonal, meaning each knight is now colour-locked.
Pawns also move forward on the diagonal (two for opening), and always move towards the center according to the quadrant they are in. This is the "black hole" part of blackhole chess, and are also colour locked. Pawns however attack on the traditional grid, in all FOUR directions (and change their colour when doing so). This is the only way a pawn can move away from the center. A pawn that reaches ANY edge on the opponent side of the board (14 total target squares) may be promoted - but it has to battle every damn step of the way to earn it!
