Millennium 3D Chess

Millennium 3D Chess starting position

Millennium 3D Chess is a chess variant created by William L. D'Agostino in 2001 that employs three vertically stacked 8x8 boards, with each player controlling a standard set of chess pieces. The inventor describes his objective as "extending the traditional chess game into a multilevel environment without distorting the basic game."

The 8x8x3 geometry is a popular one with 3D chess inventors, and several proprietary versions exist. D'Agostino has made available a free, downloadable set of rules as well as a small but growing online library of recorded games.

Move notation

The three board levels are denoted 1 (White's board), 2 (the middle board), and 3 (Black's board). Moves are recorded in the same manner as chess, using algebraic notation, with the only difference that each square is prefaced by its level number.

For example, in standard chess, White's king starts on square e1 and Black's king starts on square e8. In Millennium 3D Chess, White's king starts on 1e1 and Black's king starts on 3e8. (And so on.)

Sample game

George Davis vs. William D'Agostino, corr. 2006
1. N2g3 B2b7 2. B3e3 N3c6 3. N2b3 B2g7 4. N2a5 Q1b6 5. N3c5 Qx1b2 6. Nx3b7 Q3b4 7. N3c5 Q3e1+ 8. Q2e1 Q3c3+ 9. K2f1 Qx1a1 10. Q2c1 B2a6+ 11. 2e2 Qx1a2 12. N2c7 R2h7 13. N1e7+ K2e8 14. N1c6 R1c8 15. Nx3c7 Rx1c2 16. Q2c7 Q2b1+ 17. K1g1 N3e5 18. Q1d7+ K2f8 19. B2f4 Q2d1 20. Bx3e5 Q3e1+ 21. K2g1 Qx3e5 22. Q2e7+ K1g7 23. Qx3d7 B2d4+ 24. 2e3 R2c1+ 25. K1g1 Q3g3+ 26. 2g2 R2f1+ 27. Nx2f1 B3e3+ 28. 2f2 Qx2f2# 0-1