CHESS13440

INTRODUCTION
My chess variant is like Chess960 (or Fischer Random Chess) except that a General, Marshall, and Cardinal are substituted for a Rook, Bishop, and Knight.

PIECES
Chess 13440 uses a standard 8x8 chessboard.  Each player has a force of eight Pawns, five standard chess pieces (one King, one Queen, one Rook, one Bishop, and one Knight) and three variant chess pieces (one Cardinal = Bishop + Knight, one Marshall = Rook + Knight, and one General = Queen + Knight).

STARTING POSITION
The starting position for Chess13440 must meet the following rules:
1. White Pawns are placed on their orthodox home squares.
2. All remaining white pieces are placed on the first rank.
3. The white King is placed somewhere between the white Rook and the white Marshall.
4. The black pieces are placed equal-and-opposite to the white pieces.  For example, if white's King is placed on b1, then black's King is placed on b8.  Note that the King never starts on the a-file or the h-file, because there has to be room for a Rook or a Marshall.

PROCEDURES FOR CREATING THIS STARTING POSITION
This procedure generates any of 13,440 possible initial positions.
1. Randomly place the white General, white Queen, white Cardinal, white Bishop, and white Knight on squares of the first rank.
2. Randomly place the white Marshall on either the first or the third empty first rank square.
3. Place the white Rook on the third or the first empty first rank square (depending upon the result of the previous procedure.
4. Place the white King on the remaining empty first rank square.
5. Place all white and black Pawns on their usual squares.
6. Place Black’s pieces to exactly mirror White’s.

RULES FOR CASTLING
Chess13440 allows each player to castle once per game, a move by both the King and Rook, or the King and Marshall, in a single move.  After castling, the King and Rook’s (or Marshall’s) final positions are exactly the same positions as they would be in standard chess.  Thus, after a-side castling (notated as O-O-O and known as Queenside castling in orthodox chess), the King is on c (c1 for White and c8 for Black) and the Rook (or Marshall) is on d (d1 for White and d8 for Black).  After h-side castling (notated as O-O and known as Kingside castling in orthodox chess), the King is on g and the Rook (or Marshall) is on f.  Castling may only occur under the following conditions:
1. The King and the castling Rook (or Marshall) must not have moved before in the game.
2. All of the squares between and including the King's initial and final squares must not be under attack by any opposing piece.
3. All of the squares between the King's initial and final squares (including the final square), and all of the squares between the Rook's (or Marshall’s) initial and final squares (including the final square), must be vacant except for the King and castling Rook (or Marshall).