MetaChess is a variant invented by Michael Holwell and his father James (chessteacher). This is the most advanced variant on cowplay in that it has dynamically changing pieces. Each piece on the same file (vertical line) as another piece gains the powers of that piece. Hence if a knight is on the same file as a queen and pawn then the knight will be able to move as a queen and a pawn also, just as much as the pawn will also be able to move as queen and knight. Note that if a piece moves off a file then it would lose its fellow pieces capabilities and perhaps gain new ones on its new file.

Advanced Rulings:

Castling is not inherited by any pieces

En-passant movement is totally disabled for all pieces, including pawns in normal circumstances.

Pieces will inherit a pawn's 2 square advance if a pawn on the same file is on its base square.

A pawn returning to any base square, e.g. 2nd rank for white, 6th for black, may once again make its 2 move advance.

A king may put another king in check if it is not placed in check in the same movement, therefore if white king is on e2 with its queen on e1 and the black king is placed on the e file with no squares between the two kings, then the black king will be in check by the white king, which is empowered down the e-file by its supported queen.

This has been a lot of work, and we would like to thank James Holwell and Michael Holwell for their continued support and analysis of chess rules in working the structure for this game throughout the last week of heavy development.

Play this new an interesting variant online now (for free) on www.cowplay.com

Okay thats advertising aganst the rules.