A different plane of thought.

A television idea, developed into playable rules

The multi-level chess prop associated with the original Star Trek series sparked interest in making a real game from the idea. A screen appearance alone is not a complete specification: players need precise rules for movement, captures, check, promotion and the movable parts of the board.

Jens Meder and collaborators developed a tournament ruleset, with an English translation by Meder in 1999. His site records the provenance of that work and supplies the rules. It is a candidate foundation for a later playable version here.

More than ordinary chess stacked vertically

A multi-level board needs an explicit model of adjacency and line of sight. A bishop’s diagonal, for example, cannot be inferred safely from a perspective drawing. The rules must decide how squares on different levels relate to each other.

Movable attack boards add another kind of action. A useful interface should distinguish moving a piece from moving a board, show the consequences before committing, and explain why an attempted action is illegal.

What this space is for

The preview establishes the visual and editorial space for the feature. Its three layers are schematic, not a complete Meder starting position. A full build would add the attack boards, exact coordinates, legal moves, check detection, promotion and a rules tutorial.

We will identify the adopted ruleset and any deviations explicitly. That gives visitors a real game to learn without suggesting that a single fully specified ruleset came directly from the television prop.