Multiple decades ago, I was introduced to a game as described in the title of this question. What I can remember of it is:

  1. The two rooks had different functions. They were distinguished by placing one of them upside down.

  2. One piece was called a "retractor". It captured by moving to a square adjacent to the target piece, then moving away on a subsequent turn, unless the target moved first.

  3. Another piece, called an "immobilizer", prevented any adjacent opposing piece from moving. Two adjacent opposing immobilizers could create a permanent mess.

  4. Yet another (whose name I forget) captured by moving to a position such that it, the king of its color, & the target formed a right triangle, with the king at the right-angle vertex. There were both obvious & less obvious configurations that met this condition. (E.g., the king could be in a "knight's move" direction from each of the other two.)

  5. I believe another piece could capture by jumping its target, checkers-style, though not necessarily diagonally.

I have no recollection of how any of the pieces moved; nor, for that matter, what the object of the game was. I would be grateful to anyone who can provide any further information, especially the name of the game, or any pointers to a complete set of rules.

Thank you very much.


Doing a quick search for "chess" and "immobilizer" led me to Baroque Chess.

  • 1
    And the "Withdrawer" would match the "Retractor" above while the "Long Leaper" captures by jumping, possibly multiple times along the same direction.' – Sean Duggan Aug 15 '14 at 16:52

It's Ultima

King, represented by the King.
Withdrawer, represented by the Queen.
Chameleon, represented by the Bishop.
Long Leaper, represented by the Knight.
Coordinator, represented by the Rook.
Immobilizer, represented by the Rook, placed on its head.
Pawn, represented by the Pawn. 

Object is to checkmate the King

  • 3
    Note that this is the same game as the other answer. From Wikipedia on Baroque Chess: "Baroque chess is a chess variant invented in 1962 by Robert Abbott. In 1963, at the suggestion of his publisher, he changed the name to Ultima, by which name it is also known. " – Cascabel Jan 18 '17 at 21:32

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