Catenoid - Wormhole Chess

Chess has evolved. Space has folded. Your mind will bend.

Catenoid takes the timeless strategy of chess and warps it through a non-Euclidean playing field. Two standard 8x8 boards are connected at their centers, creating a unified 144-cell battlefield where pieces can slide seamlessly between dimensions.

This is Wormhole Chess, originally designed as a 3D printed art puzzle by Dave @ davemakesstuff.

A New Dimension of Strategy

The center of each board contains a catenoid wormhole — a topological bridge that links both playing surfaces. Rooks, Bishops, and Queens don't stop at the edge; they continue their trajectory through the wormhole and emerge on the opposite board. A single diagonal can start on one board and end on the other.

Nexus points — the pentagonal cells surrounding each wormhole — act as strategic chokepoints. Sliding pieces can travel to a nexus, but never through it in a single move. Control the nexus, control the flow of the game.

The Rules

All standard chess rules apply, plus:

• Nexus Blocking — Rooks, Bishops, and Queens can move to a nexus tile, but cannot pass through it. The pentagon stops all rays.

• Pawn Pathing — Pawns approaching a wormhole may choose which nexus path to take. Pawns moving away from a wormhole must travel straight along their file.

• Promotion Zones — Pawns promote on any square ending in rank 1 or 8, on either board. Push deep into enemy territory — no matter which dimension.

Features

• Non-Euclidean Chess — Familiar rules, unfamiliar geometry. Every piece moves exactly as you'd expect, but the board itself defies expectation.

• Steam Multiplayer — Challenge friends or find opponents through quickplay matchmaking. Invite via Steam overlay.

• Cross-Board Tactics — Pin a king through a wormhole. Fork pieces across dimensions. Discover entirely new mating patterns.

• Full Chess Rules — Castling, en passant, pawn promotion — all the moves you know, adapted for wormhole topology.

• Sandbox Mode — Experiment with piece placement and explore how movement works across the connected boards.

Easy to Learn, Deep to Master

If you know chess, you already know 90% of Catenoid. The rules are identical — only the board has changed. But that change opens up thousands of new strategic possibilities. Pieces that were safe become vulnerable. Attacks come from impossible angles. The center isn't just important — it's a portal.

"Think in portals. Checkmate in four dimensions."