Chess Variants

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Chess Variants

I enjoy several abstract games that I think could be played using Internet Discussion Groups, and have found that Chess Variants are an easy way to explain some concepts.

This essay assumes the reader already knows the rules to the game of Chess.

Normally chess is played face to face, across a table, sometimes with a chess clock in which both sides have a time limit ... do your move, punch the clock ... if you run out of time, you lose the game. Chess can be played by mail, using post cards back and forth, or by e-mail, or other means. We often see an unattended chess board setup in some office, where two people in the office are taking turns doing moves at their convenience.

An Internet Discussion Group could be used for pairs of players to be reporting their moves, but this is more entertaining for the audience if it came with graphics showing the moves played out so far. I think we need a computer program that could be fed the list of moves so far by both sides, that would then in slow motion display a picture of those moves. It might also show a running "score" at side based on values of pieces that have been taken so far.

With a group of people having similar interests, we can have a ladder of scores, updated by participants reporting a game completed, which could have been played by any means the pair of players agreed to. People near the top of the ladder get challenged by people lower down.

Chess Tournament champions sometimes do Simultaneous Matches, where tables are setup in a big square with the champion moving around the square doing a move and you better be ready when he comes around so that you can show him your move. The way to beat the champion is to play an unorthodox game, where he has to stop and think when he comes around to you, because everyone else is playing a standard game.

In Give Away Chess if you have the opportunity to take a piece, you must do so. The first person to lose all their pieces is the winner. In this variant, the King has no special value.

In Scottish Chess, white moves 1, black does 2 consecutive moves, white does 3 consecutive, and so it goes. If you take something, or create Check, the other side gets a move in response, but this does not affect the odd even count. For example on turn 7, White advances a pawn for move 4, turns it into a Queen for move 5, and uses it to take a Black Bishop, and put Black in Check. Black gets to do some move in reaction to this. White now has moves 6 and 7 of turn 7, before Black gets 8 moves for turn 8.

This may no longer be a politically correct name to use. In Fairy Chess, one side has all the normal pieces moved in all the normal ways. The other side (take your color pick) has ONLY a King and a Queen, except the King can move like a Queen.

I don't remember the name of the game, but each unit is identified with a particular liquor. Take that unit, and you have to drink a glass of the corresponding alcoholic beverage. Strategy is to give away units associated with getting your opponent thinking so foggy from the drunk that it is now easy to win.

My favorite is Kriegspiel Chess. This needs 3 chess sets on 3 tables. Players White and Black sit back to back, but there is a gap in between, in which the moderator has the 3rd table. The table in the middle, that neither White nor Black can see, is the master set of where everything is.

Let's follow along how this works. White makes a move using the White pieces. Has a set of Black units to play around with guessing where stuff might be, but only the White units are official positions. The moderator replicates White's move on the master board, then informs Black that it is Black's turn to move. Likewise, Black has all Black units in official places, while using White units for guessing games.

A player may ask Any? which means Can any of my pawns take something? and the moderator replies either Yes or No, and that is the end of that player able to ask that question for that turn. At this point the player who asked the question may try one and only one pawn capture.

If a player does a move that is illegal, the moderator politely says No, and reverses the move. The moderator does not volunteer why it is illegal. Perhaps enemy unit in the way, perhaps it puts your King in check. If a King is placed in check, this is announced, but not the nature of the attack (from where). If something is taken, the person who lost the unit knows exactly what they lost. The other side is merely told something was taken, not if it is a pawn or something more valuable.

This variant is a great spectator sport, with everyone biting their tongue to keep silent. Spectators take turns with the loser of one of these games to try to beat the champion, while the moderator is teaching other people how to moderate this game, so that the moderator can get a go at it soon.

Here are some internet connections to more information on the topic of Chess Variants.

You also could look for this sort of stuff in a Search Engine.