← All games
Seirawan-Harper's Chess

2007

Seirawan-Harper's Chess

2–2 players · 20 min

This variant of chess was created by GM (Grand Master) Yasser Seirawan and Bruce Harper in 2007. It is an offshoot of Capablanca Chess, using the same pieces, but on a standard 8x8 chessboard. The game introduces the Capablanca pieces, called Elephant (Chancellor, moves like a Knight-Rook) and Hawk (Archbishop/Cardinal, moves like a Knight-Bishop) by means of a double move. The double move is similar to a castle move in that it involves two pieces, with there being the OPTION of adding the Elephant or Hawk to the board in a newly vacated space in the back rank. This double move is the ONLY way the Elephant and Hawk can be added to the board. There are 8 opportunities to bring Hawk and Elephant into play. When castling, the Hawk or Elephant can either be placed on the King or Rook initial squares, but no gating of both pieces is permitted.

You can find valuable informations on Yasser Seirawan website: http://www.seirawanchess.com You can play online at www.musketeerchess.net

Alternative site on Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seirawan_chess

And also an entry for the game on the Chessvariants.org site: http://www.chessvariants.org/index/msdisplay.php?itemid=MLseirawanchess

The pieces are available at the House of Staunton: http://www.houseofstaunton.com

Pieces are also available on Amazon Europe.

An alternative design of the Elephant and Hawk is Chancellor and Archbishop respectively.

Take a look at a sister Chess Variant: Musketeer Chess http://www.musketeerchess.net

Rules and strategy

Source knowledge for this edition still needs preparation or review.

Prepare rules knowledge

Source rules are needed before we can answer reliably.

Sign in to submit a rulebook

Ask about Seirawan-Harper's Chess

Answers show their sources. When the evidence is missing or unclear, we’ll say so.