Why is the game called 5D chess when its really 4D chess?

[{sBc} Bane5]

In-game we have 4 dimensions. Two of these are spatial dimensions with the flat board. Then there are two time dimensions. (forward-back, and parallel timelines).

P.S. For the record, I still love the uniqueness of the game for having two time dimensions.

[Twelvefield]

The game rules count the two spatial dimensions on the flat board, plus the one not used (height - just because it is not used does not mean it does not exist), plus time, plus parallel time streams.

Another player suggested a better name would be Quantum Chess, as the pieces and board all move relative to one another through multiple dimensions, and I agree, although I would never have purchased something with a name like Quantum Chess.

[Kairos]

there are 5 dimensions
1. Back-Forward
2. Left-Right
3. Up-Down (ignored unless you count a Knight "jumping over")
4. back-forward in time
5. between parallel versions of the same turn in the multiverse.

[{sBc} Bane5]

Originally posted by Xanadu:

there are 5 dimensions
1. Back-Forward
2. Left-Right
3. Up-Down (ignored unless you count a Knight "jumping over")
4. back-forward in time
5. between parallel versions of the same turn in the multiverse.

I don't think there's an up-down. If it were so, we'd be seeing lots of cubes arranged in a 2-d plane to represent the 2 time dimensions.

Instead we see several 2-d flat planes duplicated many times over in a 2-d plane to represent the 2 time dimensions.

[{sBc} Bane5]

Originally posted by Twelvefield:

The game rules count the two spatial dimensions on the flat board, plus the one not used (height - just because it is not used does not mean it does not exist), plus time, plus parallel time streams.

Now that I think about, that makes sense to me actually. The gameplay is 4-d chess but the artwork depicts a 3d chess-piece (so technically we do have 5 dimensions).

[Capn P]

Pieces only move in 4 dimensions, but there's an implicit 5th temporal dimension corresponding to the board state.

You travel "forward" in this dimension whenever someone takes a turn; and you never travel "backward" in it.

I guess calling that the 5th dimension would imply that regular chess is 3D though...

[Twelvefield]

Again, we don't use all of the dimensions that are available, but they are still there, just like if I had a Ferrari in my garage I can claim to be a Ferrari driver although I would never get behind the wheel because my reflexes are shot.

I guess we could include the other n-dimensions, which should total around five? Maybe up to twenty? Humans cannot perceive them, but they are needed to make current theories of space-time work.

And again, the game really describes quantum relativity much better than its title lets on. By way of example, if we used linear time travel and went back or forwards in time by a few moments, we'd either be imbedded in the Earth's mantle or left drifting in space, since the Universe would move through space while we moved through time. With quantum relativity, the dimensions and the traveller tend to stick together as a unit. At least that's how I understand it. I have a hard enough time trying to parse a bishop that travels diagonally through the game board's space/time, let alone one that when I start the move it's in my hand and when I end my move it's on the ISS.

[Zalman]

In a certain sort of way, the way pieces move across dimensions counts as the third dimension. It's easier to picture it from history view, where you see all the board states layered on top of one another, and it's in this format that dictates the movement of pieces across them.

It's easiest to see when moving the Knight. Since moving "up" the board counts as one of it's 2-1 moves. So you can move up one layer, and then 2 spaces on that board, or move up 2 layers, and only one space on that board.

[Heals From Injuries Actually]

1. left-right (file)
2. up-down (rank)
3. forward-backward (time)
4. across parallel universes
5. creating new parallel universes

[mckryall]

I think I've figured it out. The game, technically, is two 2D chessboards with their own third linear time dimension. 5D chess has the two boards placed orthagonally, such that the time dimension of the first chessboard and one of the spatial dimensions of the second chessboard are on the same axis, so are technically the same. So, we have six dimensions (x,y), (x',y'), (t, t'). If you look at it as two 2d chessboards with their own linear time dimensions for measuring turns, it's (x, y, t), (x', y', t'). In this case, because of the way the developers have arranged the two boards, x' = t. So, with two dimensions being one, we're left with 5 dimensions.


As proof, I offer this:

- A standard chess game requires 2 spatial dimensions for play to be possible.
- A standard chess game requires turns for play to progress.
- Standard chess turns require immutable cause and effect for play to be possible.
- For immutable cause and effect to exist in one temporal dimension, time must progress in one direction and backwards travel must not be allowed.

Therefore, a standard chess game requires 1 temporal dimension that is linear and unidirectional for play to be possible.

Next,
- There exist 2 distinct chess games in 5D chess.
- Each game has an approximation of the rules of standard chess, so each game needs one temporal dimension.
- Game 1 is played across the columns of a chessboard, the rows of a chessboard, and turns for that game.
- Travel backwards in time (turns of game 1), resulting in the "creation" of additional timelines, is possible.
- For additional timelines to exist, there must be a dimension to measure which parallel timeline a board exists in.
- Game 2 is played, columns and rows, across Game 1's linear temporal dimension and parallel timeline dimension.
- Therefore, Game 2 uses Game 1's temporal dimension as one of its spatial dimensions
- Game 2 cannot use the same dimension for two of its required dimensions, so a new temporal dimension must be created for Game 2.
- Because each temporal dimension controls the progression of turns in a game, While playing in one turn of either game 1 or game 2, you cannot move through the temporal dimension of the game you're playing without ending your turn, but you can move across the temporal dimension of the other game.
- Restating the point made above, you must keep your position in one temporal dimension fixed while moving in another.
- There exist many parallel temporal dimensions in game 1, but only one temporal dimension in game 2.
- All parallel turns of game 1 must be completed before game 2 can progress.
- therefore, game 2's temporal dimension is the main temporal dimension of the game, and controls the progression of turns.


So, we end up with 5 Dimensions--right what it says on the tin.
We have, in my own words:

1: Columns
2: Rows
3: Time (Turns, game 1) (Columns, game 2)
4: Timelines (Rows, game 2)
5: Iterations (Turns, game 2)

Interestingly, this implies that the player exists outside of dimension 3, time, and exists instead in dimension 5, moving through dimensions 1-4 freely.


I hope you all find this as weird and interesting as I did.

[mckryall]

Putting it another way, you're playing chess, A 2D, really 3D game, stacked on top of chess. It would be 6D, but they're stacked so they share one of the dimensions.

The 5th dimension in this game is not one of movement in time or timelines, nor is it the creation of parallel timelines as "rip ubercharge" said, since neither of those end your turn in game 2, so you don't move in dimension 5.

[laurentbdb]

"A standard chess game requires 2 spatial dimensions for play to be possible." Wrong,
Standard 3D chess
X: moving left right (rows)
Y: moving Forward-Backward (columns)
Z: moving up-down (taking pieces off the board once captured by lifting them and dropping them aside, jumping with your knights )
If you only use X-Y you can't play chess as you can't remove the pieces off the board and your knights can't jump over other pieces
Add time and time lanes and you have your 5D chess

[Nerelith]

Originally posted by Twelvefield:

The game rules count the two spatial dimensions on the flat board, plus the one not used (height - just because it is not used does not mean it does not exist), plus time, plus parallel time streams.

Another player suggested a better name would be Quantum Chess, as the pieces and board all move relative to one another through multiple dimensions, and I agree, although I would never have purchased something with a name like Quantum Chess.

The Height dimension actually is used by the knight to reach to squares that would otherwise be blocked off. Many in the community correctly call it "The Void Dimension" since the Knight "jumps over" pieces even when it's " L" movement encompasses time , or Multidimensional travel.

It is correctly named 5 D Chess.

[{sBc} Bane5]

Originally posted by Nerelith:

The Height dimension actually is used by the knight to reach to squares that would otherwise be blocked off. Many in the community correctly call it "The Void Dimension" since the Knight "jumps over" pieces even when it's " L" movement encompasses time , or Multidimensional travel.

I guess between the player's camera including height above the board and the knight hopping over pieces, it does makes sense to call it 5D.

[RabidHobbit]

Originally posted by Nerelith:

The Height dimension actually is used by the knight to reach to squares that would otherwise be blocked off. Many in the community correctly call it "The Void Dimension" since the Knight "jumps over" pieces even when it's " L" movement encompasses time , or Multidimensional travel.

It is correctly named 5 D Chess.

Interesting. I'm not sure this void movement truly should count as another dimension, though. It's a very fun, creative and kind of sci-fi explanation, but if it were truly another dimension, it would simply be another direction, and not only the knight would be able to use it. But I can still accept this answer as a fun one. Expecially if the devs intended it.

(To me it sounds more like a "quantum" state that is special to the knight, and quantum is not a dimension.)