About the 3D chess they play on Star Trek

Question

They play a type of 3D chess on Star Trek ( the 60's series) not on a 8x8x8 3D board but on some smaller variation. Yet the game as they have it is supposed to be complicated. Are there real rules and a 3D board set-up for this?

Nick · Answer 1 · 2014-05-05T15:05:28.810

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Andrew Bartmess was the first Star Trek fan to reverse-engineer the game of tridimensional chess from the TV series (which never explained the rules). He sells his version of the rules for $9.95: Tri-D Chess Rules.

In the most popular version of Tri-D chess (which Andrew calls the “The Federation Standard 5.0” rules), the game is played on seven boards, three of which are the “main” boards and four of which are “repositionable attack boards”:

Sheldon plays Star Trek tri-dimensional chess

Players can reposition one of the four attack boards by repinning them to the static boards at different points, provided that one of their pieces occupies that board (and no other piece occupies it). This is instead of moving a piece in that turn. The boards are, in effect, treated as mobile “attack craft”.

The notation system uses a z-index from 1-7 to indicate which board the piece is moving to:

Tri-D chess board notation

Unfortunately there’s no free version of Bartmess’ rules available online.

Jens Meder maintains an alternate but free online version of Tournament rules for Three-Dimensional Chess which are inspired by Star Trek and tied more closely to standard FIDE chess rules than Bartmess' version, albeit with the same wonderful board stand and complex notation:

Three-dimensional chess stand

Three-dimensional chess notation

edited May 05 '14 at 15:05

answered May 05 '14 at 12:47

Nick

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You might want to add that the TV show game did not have rules. It was a prop and plot device. – newshutz May 05 '14 at 12:55
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selling his version of the rules sounds so ridiculous. – Salvador Dali Sep 22 '14 at 00:36
Seriously? Buy "rules"?! – Wais Kamal Jan 09 '19 at 12:13
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It should be noted, Bartmess' Federation Standard rules employ a 'higher board' movement rule, which gives the white player a distinct advantage. Members of the 'Big Bang Theory' production staff were also members of the World Tri Dimensional Chess Federation and ensured the W3DCF rules were adhered to during the shooting of the television program. They can be found, for free, at http://w3dcf.com/information/laws – sanepete Mar 03 '22 at 17:06

score 5 · Accepted Answer · answered Sep 11 '14 at 02:04

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I have release a free Android version of Star Trek chess. It uses the “The Federation Standard 5.0” rules.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=awfsoft.app.TriDChess

answered Sep 11 '14 at 02:04

Fred

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VERY INTERESTING! Is there a version for Windows 7 , I don't have Android. – user128932 Sep 12 '14 at 05:16
Could a game of chess be played on a 4 by 4 by 4 , 3-D board set up like the 3-d tic-tac-toe game? – user128932 Sep 12 '14 at 05:18
It looks suspiciously like @Fred is an advert bot. – sanepete Mar 03 '22 at 17:08

score 4 · Answer 3 · edited May 12 '21 at 16:57

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The World Tri Dimensional Chess Federation use a set of rules developed by a fighter pilot to improve three dimensional awareness and tactical maneuvering in modern aerial combat on the same Star Trek style game board. This seems closer to the spirit of the original concept.

edited May 12 '21 at 16:57

lodebari

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answered May 12 '21 at 10:46

charliechess

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I added a link to the laws of the W3DCF. Please check if that is correct. – lodebari May 12 '21 at 16:58
It certainly seems to be. – charliechess May 13 '21 at 21:15

About the 3D chess they play on Star Trek

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