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xodul is a tactical and strategy game, which is a variant of chess...



let's play!

>>> xodul club, next online meeting:
        monday, 7p.m. london time [19h, lisbon time].
        for more info, check out the club page!

how to play...

>> the rules of xodul follow the rules of international chess, except in the movement of the additional pieces and the promotion of pawns [and that there is neither castle nor en passant].



initial setup

the initial setup of the xodul game is as indicated in the following figure:


 

- the bottom pieces from left to right are: the car, the knight, the bishop, the queen, the king, the wizard, the guard, the lance, and the cannon. The game is played in a board with 8x9 lines & columns.


the pieces

in the xodul…

  • there are some pieces equal in name and movement to the international chess [the knight, the bishop, the queen and the king];

  • there are two pieces equal in name and movement to those of chinese chess /xiang-qi [the car and the cannon; note that the movement of the car is equal to the movement of the rook piece of international chess];

  • there are two pieces with repeated names of chinese /xiang-qi chess and japanese chess /shogi, but with original movements [the guard and the lance, respectively];

  • there is a totally original piece [the wizard];

  • and finally, there are the pawns, whose normal movement is the same as they have in international chess, but whose promotion in this game is made accordingly to original rules.

the car moves along lines or columns, the desired number of squares.

the knight moves in the form of the capital letter “L”, jumping over the pieces with its movement, if the player wants that.

the bishop moves along diagonal directions, the desired number of squares.

the queen moves along lines, columns or diagonals, any number of squares.

the king moves one square in any direction.

the wizard has two options:
i) the special movement – if the king is not in check the wizard can use the teleport, i.e. it can move directly to any empty square of the board;
ii) in addition, the wizard can move exactly two squares in diagonal without jumping over pieces, for instance to capture a piece (or to defend checks).

the guard has two options:
i) it can move one square up /down /left /right;
ii) in addition, it can move various squares along its line /column in the direction of its king up to the maximum of intercepting a coordinate of that king.

the lance has two types of movement:
i) it can move to the front any number of squares (without making jumps over other pieces);
ii) in addition, it can move one square in any diagonal.

the cannon has a normal movement equal to the car's movement; however, when it is going to make a capture it must jump over one, and only one, other piece of any colour.

the pawn's normal movement is to move one square to the front if that square is empty; in its first move, it has the option of moving two squares to the front; in another hand, its capture movement is to move one square in diagonal to the front.


promotion of pawns

  • at any phase of the game, instead of doing a normal move, the player can promote any of its pawns by replacing it with a captured piece (along the game, that can be done the number of times the player wants, while having pawns);
  • if a pawn reaches the last line it is converted into a “general”, which can move one square to the front or one square in any diagonal.

documents...


 Xodul game logo.

Photograph of the 1st xodul set, this still in 2d, with cardboard bases and transparent plastics in the shape of each piece; the board is made of canvas.

Limited edition in 2d with very few manufactured examplars, due to the time-consuming manual labor involved; this set has cut and laminated k-line pieces; the board is made of canvas.

Set engraved with laser relief, with vector drawings elaborated on a computer in vector format; after laser engraving and manual cut of each piece in a carpentry shop, the pieces were hand painted front and back and varnished.

This is my favorite board! it was the 1st board made with 3d printing technology, with the help of the american corner group UA-portugal; these parts were printed in the UA, with a BEETHEFIRST printer; it also has rubber washers for the color changing system of the parts.

This is a board printed in the ogami store in coimbra-PT, the 1st "graphic store" that I selected to do the service of printing my models; this was discontinued because it is too expensive.

Hi! now, after I started working at a 3d printer company, i got a partnership with my company and printed a few copies of my 3d game with white PLA material; I sold some copies to buyers on e-bay, but now this is out-of-stock...

Here, the xodul game kept in a box with all the pieces.

Another perspective of a set of the xodul game.

This is a xodul board, made of canvas that is a flexible material.

This *.png file contains the board designed on a computer, which I ask to print in a printer shop with the measures 37.0cm x 33.5cm.

Here is an image containing the 3D drawings drawn on a computer, and placed on a platform of a virtual 3D printer with the BEESOFT software.

These were the initial drawings generated with opensource image editing software for linux: gimp and inskscape; these drawings were made with *.svg and *.png files; with the printing of these images, the first 2d boards were made, with which we initially played.

This *.zip contains the 3d images generated by the edition of the previous 2d models, after its manipulation with an open source software program for linux: blender; these *.blend models were then imported and converted to *.stl files that store each model in 3d, and converted to *.gcode which are files read by 3d machines.

Here are images of a set of xodul ads made on ebay.

This is the brochure with the rules of xodul, in english.

This is the brochure with the rules of xodul, in portuguese.

This is a *.pdf document with the rules in english.

This is a *.pdf document with the rules in portuguese.

history...

- this game was invented by Sílvia M.G. Rodrigues, since the academic year 2010/2011 until december 20th, 2017.

about...

Xodul is a tactical and strategy game, which is a variant of chess. This game is inspired on international chess, chinese chess (xiang-qi), and japanese chess (shogi).
In particular, xodul has 10 different pieces from each other: car, knight, bishop, queen, king, wizard, guard, lance, cannon and pawns; moreover, the promotion of pawns can be made accordingly to a different rule: a piece captured by one of the players can return to the game through the promotion of one of the pawns; therefore, the pieces can change their colour.
This game was invented by Sílvia M.G. Rodrigues, since the academic year 2010/2011 until december 20th, 2017.

contact us...

silviamgr.sissi@gmail.com

(+351) 964334587


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