The pieces needed for each player, are the same as conventional chess. Each player requires the following:



1 King

1 Queen

2 Knights

2 Bishops

2 Rooks

8 Pawns

The pieces are shown in the image above, easily recognisable to any chess player. To anyone new to chess however, these pieces are (left to right): King, Queen, Bishop, Knight, Pawn and Rook. The king and the knight are made of two parts, I made them like this to reduce the requirement for support structures in printing.

The Knight has a base, and the "horse" part, simply place the "horse" body into the base part to construct the knight. The king, has a base and a cross at its top. The cross is a small part, which will be fiddly but easy to assemble. As with the knight, simply put the cross inside the space for it in the Kings head, and the player is complete.

The playing pieces in chess move and capture other players in different ways. I have listed each player, and how they can move below. There are links to images in the description showing such moves for each playing piece.In these images, the red circle is the starting position for the playing piece. While the blue circles represent where the player can move this piece to.

Pawns

A pawn in chess, moves forward one space except for its first move where it can move two places if the player wishes. To take another piece with a pawn, it must be onj the diagonal square infront of the pawn. For 3D chess, the pawns on the moveable sqaures can move down one, or down one and forward one (effectively moving two spaces). An example of how a Pawn can move in this game can be seen HERE.

The Pawn at the top right of the image, is on the moveable platform, at the far side. This means that there is nowhere this Pawn can move forward to. This Pawn can only move diagonally, which can only be done to take another piece. The other two Pawns on the board can move normally, where they are shown in their starting positions.

Rooks

The Rook can move forward, backwards, left or right any number of spaces. It can only move in one direction each time it moves. A Rook can take other pieces which are in its path, as always with any piece, it can only take one piece at a time, cannot move through other pieces (this differs for a Knight only), and stops its turn when it takes another piece or has finished moving.

An example of how a Rook can move in this game is shown HERE. There are two Rooks in this image, one at its starting position, and another in an arbituary position.

Knights

The Knight moves in an "L" shape on the board. It moves two places forward and one place to the left or right. A Knight can move forward, left, right or backwards in this manner (the "left" and "right" movement after moving two spaces is relative to the direction it has moved. An image showing how a Knight can move on a typical game of chess can be found HERE.

While an image of how a Knight can move in a game of 3D 3 player chess is HERE. To take a playing piece with a Knight, it must be where the knight finished moving at the end of the "L" shape. The knight can move past other playing pieces, going over them or through them.

Bishops

The Bishops typically start on alternating colours. One starts on a black sqaure, and the other on a white sqaure. Bishops can only move in a diagonal direction, which means that they will always be on the same colour square throughout the games duration.

An image of how Bishops move in this game is HERE. A Bishop like other pieces (except for a Pawn) can take a playing piece from another player which is in its path.

The Queen

The Queen is commonly known as the most powerful playing piece on the board. The queen can move any number of spaces in any direction. An image of how this works for 3D 3 player chess is HERE.

The King

The King, is the most important playing piece, where the main goal to win is to "capture" the King. The King cannot be captured like other pieces. The King can move in any direction, but only one sqaure at a time, as seen HERE.