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3D chess from Star Trek

Star Trek is a science fiction phenomenon. For many decades, there are several Star Trek television series made, broadcasted, and repeated. Besides, there are several Star Trek movies, fan clubs, magazines, books, etc. In a number of Star Trek episodes, a three dimensional chess variant is played. The rules were reconstructed by a fan of the series, Andrew Bartmess, and given below in a description by James Dixon, reworded by Hans Bodlaender. See also:

Building Your Own Star Trek Tridimensional Chess Board.
The Federation Standard version of Tri-D Chess may be found at Andrew Bartmess' page.

Three dimensional Chess, from Star Trek

Several fans of the science-fiction series Star Trek have designed rules for the three dimensional chess game, played in this series, and its followups. One of these was James Dixon, an undergraduate student Astronomy of the University of Texas at Austin when he invented the rules, based on a description of the game (probably that of Andrew Bartmess). He made these rules in the beginning of the 90's, and posted them on the electronic news. Below, you find a reworded version of these rules.

General information

The board of this game is constructed, using information given in the Starfleet Technical Reference Manual.

The three dimensional board consists of seven different levels. Three of these have size four by four, and have a fixed position; the four others have size two by two and can be moved by the players. The position of the fixed levels looks like a staircase: each next level starts above the third row of the previous level, while the other sides of all fixed levels are parallel. The movable levels find themselves initially above the outermost corners of the upper and lower level; i.e., one of its corner has a corner of the board below it, while the other three corners have no fixed level board below it.

When the movable levels go to a different spot, they will always be above or below a corner of a fixed level, with three squares extending from the level. Note that always black squares are above and below black squares, and white squares are above and below white squares.

side view with fixed and movable levels

Starting position

The position of the pieces when the game starts is depicted below; the board is `flattened' for ease of display.

Movable levels

Each of the movable levels can be above or below any corner of one of the three fixed levels.

Hence, there can be a movable level below and above the same corner.

Players may, when it is their turn, either move a movable level (under some restrictions), or move a piece.

Moving movable levels

A player can move a movable level when one of the following conditions is fulfilled (and of course, the move doesn't leave him in check):

He moves an empty movable level.
He moves a movable level which contains one of his pawns and no other pieces.

When he moves a movable level, there are the following choices, provided the movable level is not moved to a position, already taken by another movable level:

The level is moved to the other side of the same corner of a fixed board, i.e., when the level is below a corner, it may be moved to the position above the corner, or vice versa. For such a move, the board should be empty.
The level is moved to a corner that is adjacent on the same board, and on the same side; i.e., if the level is above the upper-left corner of a fixed board, it may be moved to above the down-left or upper-right corners of the board.
The level is moved to an `adjacent' corner of the next board. When the level is above a fixed board, it can be moved to below the same corner of the next higher fixed board. For such a move, the board should be empty.

Movement of Pieces

Movement of pieces is similar to that of orthodox chess, but there are two additional rules. First, when we look to the board from above, the piece should be able to make a normal chess move to the square he wants to go to. Secondly, each step taken, the piece can go up or down one or more levels; where going up or down a level always means going from a movable level to a fixed level or vice versa. (Think of it as follows: fixed levels have heights 2, 4 and 6. Movable levels can have heights 1, 3, 5, or 7.) These are the only two additional conditions.

Thus, it is possible that a piece moves over another piece: see the diagram above.

General notes

James Dixon wrote about the game:

One will notice that when playing 3D chess it will take a considerable amount of time just to move to the neutral level(the fx-lvls are referred to as the white, neutral, and black levels -- the lower, middle, and upper respectively), in fact longer for black(can the reader guess why?). But after that phase of the game is reached the game can become very complex, very quickly. After a few games one can see how 3D chess can improve starship tactics and inspire three-dimensional thinking (Khan's deficiency and undoing).

Note

The Federation Standard version of Tri-D Chess may be found at Andrew Bartmess' page.

Some pictures of this set, and other 3D sets can be found at: Jeff Elmore's site.

Tridimensional Star Trek Chess sets can usually be found on ebay (www.ebay.com). The best way to search for it is to enter "Star Trek Chess" (without the quotes) in the ebay search box. Note: we have no association with ebay, and are not necessarily recommending its use.

Written by Hans Bodlaender. Materials based on texts of Andrew Bartmess and James Dixon. With thanks to C. Hallock, for spotting an error.

WWW page created: 1995 or 1996. Last modified: Nov 1, 2000.

Created on: 1996. Last modified on: September 29, 2001.