ÉCHEC O CUBE is played on three official boards. These are not three sizes of the same game: the number of pawns changes everything about how you play.
7x7 discovery
41 light pawns and 15 dark ones per player, 8 red pawns in play.
This is the learning format, and the one used in the app. A game finishes quickly, you see your mistakes right away, and the board fills up enough for the corner mechanism to make sense without drowning you.
With only 15 dark pawns, every structural piece counts. It is an excellent place to learn not to waste them.
9x9 recreational
72 light pawns and 33 dark ones per player, 15 red pawns.
This is the kitchen-table format, the one for long evenings. The board is big enough for two players to develop their own territory before things meet in the middle. Clusters of cubes become possible, and so do end-of-game reversals.
It is also the format of the wooden board from the Vintage 1999 Collection, the one that will be unveiled soon.
11x11 FEOC competition
115 light pawns and 50 dark ones per player, 20 red pawns.
This is the Federation's official format. At this size you no longer play move by move: you play plans. A placement error on the twentieth move is paid for on the hundredth. Managing your reserve becomes an art, because 50 unplayed dark pawns means a hundred penalty points.
This is the tournament format, and the one where red-pawn strategy comes fully into its own.
What never changes
Whatever the board, the rules are the same. The first pawn is free, after that every pawn must touch the opposite colour. Two dark pawns never touch. A cube only counts if its four corners are held by a dark pawn. And the pawns left in your hands at the end cost you points.
Our advice
Play your first ten games on 7x7, against the computer, climbing the levels one at a time. Move to 9x9 once you win regularly at Intermediate. Save the 11x11 for the day you want to play seriously against a human.
In the app, the format is chosen from the home screen and applies to the next new game. Online play is 7x7 for now.
ÉCHEC O CUBE — invented in Quebec in 1999. To play: jeu.echecocube.ca
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