4P3 Chess Board

The chess board is comprised of 55 hexagons in three colors: umber, amber and sand (dark, medium and light), and organized into three "tridrants" (rhymes with hydrants) separated by a dashed white line. The red arrows in each tridrant indicate the direction the pawns travel. The umber-colored hex at the center of the chess board does not belong to a tridrant.


drawing of Hexes Chess 4P3 chess board

Rank, File and Tridrant Coordinates

Rank, file and tridrant coordinates are not necessary to play but they are useful for noting chess moves because they create an address for every hex on the chess board, and they are necessary when recording a match on a scoresheet using notation.

The chess board is organized into three identical (but rotated) tridrants. Each hex has an address determined by its rank and file coordinates, and its tridrant. The umber-colored hex at the center of the chess board is the exception. It does not lie within a tridrant and is identified simply as 6.
(See below.)


drawing of Hexes Chess 4P3 chess board with coordinates identified

Each tridrant has five ranks (1-5) by four files (a,b,c,d). For example, the coordinate a5W identifies the hex at the intersection of the a-file and the 5th rank on White's tridrant.