Chess variants

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  • Chess variants

    Thought to make a poll what chess variants you play from time to time.
    Possible candidates with a full set.

    Chess
    Bughouse (double-chess)
    Fischer random 960
    Two-moves chess.

    Only four variants I play or played. If you know other variant and at least five people play it, write it down and it will be included in the poll. Otherwise all will go as "ETC".

  • #2
    Re: Chess variants

    Originally posted by Egidijus Zeromskis View Post

    Only four variants I play or played. If you know other variant and at least five people play it, write it down and it will be included in the poll. Otherwise all will go as "ETC".
    Kriegspiel used to have some popularity.
    Gary Ruben
    CC - IA and SIM

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    • #3
      Re: Chess variants

      I assume you'll make the poll multiple-answers (by a single respondent)possible, assuming you know how to set it up.

      I played a number of chess variants with one friend many years ago, but I don't know if at least five other Canadians would play them nowadays,
      such as:
      Hexagonal Chess (a purchased hexagon board [with grey, light and dark hexs] + [36 pieces total] set, in a tube, which I recently discarded),
      Dice Chess (a die number corresponds to a piece type),
      Baroleena's (sp?) Pawns (pawns capture forward & advance diagonally),
      Three Dimensional (3-D) Chess (on three 8x8 boards, still with just 16 pieces per side),
      Four Dimensional Chess (16 4x4 boards, and 32 pieces each, on a computer screen, using a BASIC program I wrote myself that took under 16K - a homemade variant though),
      Progressive Chess (White moves, Black moves twice, White moves three times, etc.),
      "Check" (or whatever it's called - first check delivered wins - we abandoned this game after discovering 1.Nc3 wins by force)

      We also played:
      Kriegspiel (sp?) (a game requiring 3 boards and a referee, though later we rendered a referee unnecessary by using two computer terminals and a BASIC program my friend wrote, again under 16K). This game I know used to be played by a fair number of people from around the world, especially many decades ago in Toronto.

      There was a game being sold in Saint John at the 1988 Chess Festival (hosting Candidates matches). It involved constructing a board with interlocking squares, so that the board could be highly irregular. I forget the name of the game, but I played some games of it.
      Last edited by Kevin Pacey; Thursday, 27th September, 2012, 01:59 PM. Reason: Grammar
      Anything that can go wrong will go wrong.
      Murphy's law, by Edward A. Murphy Jr., USAF, Aerospace Engineer

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      • #4
        Re: Chess variants

        I've also played progressive chess quite a few times.

        Also:

        - Cylindrical chess. You play as if the a- and h-files are connected.
        - Take me chess or giveaway chess; the version where you lose everything including the K.
        - Crazyhouse (though you need two sets to play it)
        - Replacement chess. You capture your opponent's pieces and you can put them on any empty square on the board, i.e. the board always has 32 units on it.

        A long time ago we used to play a version whose official name I don't know but I called it "Tank Battle Chess" because it reminded me of the old board game Tank Battle. Each player wrote down two "mined" squares on their side of the board. The first unit that landed on one of those squares blew up. So for example if you were White you write down (say) e3 and b4. If you put something on one of those squares it blows up. If your opponent puts something on one of those squares it blows up.

        Mostly I play these variants at chess camps with the helpers in the mornings and in the late afternoons.

        The kids also like to play Atomic Chess, where if something got captured the captured piece, the piece doing the capturing, and all pieces adjacent to the piece blew up (including the K, if it is in the blast radius). Even if you were in check and blew up the enemy K you won.
        "Tom is a well known racist, and like most of them he won't admit it, possibly even to himself." - Ed Seedhouse, October 4, 2020.

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        • #5
          Re: Chess variants

          - loser chess (goal is to lose all pieces, must take an opponent piece if you can, checks don't matter)

          - There is also something the local kids play: White plays normally, black has a reduced set of material (pawns & K only maybe?) but black gets two moves at a time. Don't know what they call it. (maybe monster chess)

          [edit: it is monster chess & I got the colors backwards. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monster_chess]
          Last edited by Roger Patterson; Wednesday, 26th September, 2012, 11:27 PM.

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          • #6
            Re: Chess variants

            There was also Bombalot, a game co-invented by B.C.'s Duncan Suttles and Bruce Harper, I think. Not at all like chess. The object was to score two pieces into imaginary squares just behind where the standard chess king and queen stand. The Queen acted like a bomb if the player desired, destroying everything in a two square radius (otherwise it moved one square). The King was an immobilizer, immobilizing adjacent enemy pieces to it. One of the rooks was inverted like it was promoted to a queen, and it imitated the properties of the last enemy piece that moved. There were lots of other rules, but the only problem I had with the game was that it was unclear to me how to interpret the rules (published in an old CFC mag) in at least ten or so unusual situations that I thought might arise.

            Oddly enough, it was a variant my non-serious-chess playing brother used to like playing with me. He was normally into war games instead of regular chess, and had long given up trying to play with me (even at odds, such as my having a capped pawn [that must deliver mate], and my having no queen).
            Anything that can go wrong will go wrong.
            Murphy's law, by Edward A. Murphy Jr., USAF, Aerospace Engineer

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            • #7
              Re: Chess variants

              Progressive chess - I played in the "World Internet Progressive Chess Championship" some years ago after making it through the preliminaries. The organizer was trying to collect enough data from competent players to prove that it was a win for one side or the other. (no definite conclusion, but a Benoni-type start for Black seemed to give Black a slight edge). It's hard to get a computer to help with your analysis. :-)

              Annotated games from the event are at http://users.ics.aalto.fi/tho/wipcc96final.html

              More info at: http://users.ics.aalto.fi/tho/chess.html

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              • #8
                Re: Chess variants

                Originally posted by Hugh Brodie View Post
                Progressive chess - I played in the "World Internet Progressive Chess Championship" some years ago after making it through the preliminaries. The organizer was trying to collect enough data from competent players to prove that it was a win for one side or the other. (no definite conclusion, but a Benoni-type start for Black seemed to give Black a slight edge). It's hard to get a computer to help with your analysis. :-)

                Annotated games from the event are at http://users.ics.aalto.fi/tho/wipcc96final.html

                More info at: http://users.ics.aalto.fi/tho/chess.html
                Hugh, has there ever been a variant of progressive chess that went like this:

                (1) White makes 1 move.
                (2) Black makes 2 moves.
                (3) White makes 2 moves.
                (4) Black makes 2 moves.
                (5) White makes 2 moves.
                etc ?

                In other words, the advantage of an extra move just keeps flipping between White and Black. Of course, there would be a rule that says making 2 moves must be done with 2 different pieces, and the first move cannot give check.
                Only the rushing is heard...
                Onward flies the bird.

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                • #9
                  Re: Chess variants

                  Originally posted by Tom O'Donnell View Post
                  - Replacement chess. You capture your opponent's pieces and you can put them on any empty square on the board, i.e. the board always has 32 units on it.
                  I used to play this with at least five different people decades ago in Toronto (in Toronto, at least, it was called bughouse, and what has been called bughouse lately [at least] was called double chess - calling that siamese chess or bughouse was frowned upon ).
                  Anything that can go wrong will go wrong.
                  Murphy's law, by Edward A. Murphy Jr., USAF, Aerospace Engineer

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Re: Chess variants

                    Just to be clear for Egidijus: two players are playing on one board. For example, you capture the opponent's White Q (say on d3) and you are mandated to replace that captured piece on any empty square on the board as part of your move. No one is ever up material. The games are generally pretty long from what I've seen but basically you try to capture things like Ns and Qs and replace them in some corner so it takes the opponent a bunch of moves to mobilize them back into the game.

                    A sample game snippet:

                    1.e4 e5
                    2.Nf3 Nc6
                    3.d4 exd4 (and Black places the captured White P on say d2)
                    4.Nxd4 (and White places the captured Black P on say e6)
                    4...Nxd4 (and Black places the captured White N on say d3)

                    At all times there are 32 units on the board. You can never "win" material, you can only make your opponent's pieces really bad and strip his K of shelter by capturing nearby units and sending them far away. ;-)
                    "Tom is a well known racist, and like most of them he won't admit it, possibly even to himself." - Ed Seedhouse, October 4, 2020.

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                    • #11
                      Re: Chess variants

                      Candidates for a poll:

                      1. Chess
                      2. Bughouse (double-chess)
                      3. Fischer random 960
                      4. Two-moves chess
                      5. Kriegspiel
                      6. Progressive Chess
                      7. Take me chess, giveaway chess, looser. We called it Chapaev. How could I forgot this funny game
                      8. Replacement chess
                      9. Crazyhouse
                      10. etc

                      I'm thinking as a question: five most popular chess variants.

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                      • #12
                        Re: Chess variants

                        Originally posted by Egidijus Zeromskis View Post
                        Candidates for a poll:

                        1. Chess
                        2. Bughouse (double-chess)
                        3. Fischer random 960
                        4. Two-moves chess
                        5. Kriegspiel
                        6. Progressive Chess
                        7. Take me chess, giveaway chess, looser. We called it Chapaev. How could I forgot this funny game
                        8. Replacement chess
                        9. Crazyhouse
                        10. etc

                        I'm thinking as a question: five most popular chess variants.
                        A suggestion I'd have is to have the poll question specify that a respondent has recently (within the last year?) played any number of the above choices with someone. I haven't played any sort of variant at all, aside from standard chess, for decades, other than double chess (and that was over a year ago, but within the last three years, I think).

                        On the other hand, if altogether different board games like Shogi were included (which I don't wish for) it would be different. Perhaps all chess variants in the poll should require one or more standard chess sets to play!?
                        Anything that can go wrong will go wrong.
                        Murphy's law, by Edward A. Murphy Jr., USAF, Aerospace Engineer

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          Re: Chess variants

                          Originally posted by Egidijus Zeromskis View Post
                          Thought to make a poll what chess variants you play from time to time.
                          Possible candidates with a full set.

                          Chess
                          Bughouse (double-chess)
                          Fischer random 960
                          Two-moves chess.

                          Only four variants I play or played. If you know other variant and at least five people play it, write it down and it will be included in the poll. Otherwise all will go as "ETC".
                          I invented psychic chess. It has never caught on but then I know it wouldn't. However, I will say there are no draws in psychic chess.

                          Comment


                          • #14
                            Re: Chess variants

                            I liked Omega Chess when I played a couple games at a TIO. Bughouse is the most popular around here, but I don't care much for it. Crazyhouse. Loser's Chess.

                            And I wish there were Chess 960 tournaments. I would be happy if that were regularly played.

                            Comment


                            • #15
                              Re: Chess variants

                              Originally posted by Egidijus Zeromskis View Post
                              Candidates for a poll:

                              1. Chess
                              2. Bughouse (double-chess)
                              3. Fischer random 960
                              4. Two-moves chess
                              5. Kriegspiel
                              6. Progressive Chess
                              7. Take me chess, giveaway chess, looser. We called it Chapaev. How could I forgot this funny game
                              8. Replacement chess
                              9. Crazyhouse
                              10. etc

                              I'm thinking as a question: five most popular chess variants.
                              Did anyone mention Monster Chess? (W has K + 4 Ps; B has the full army. But the W "monster" gets 2 moves each turn - and can even move in and out of check.) We used to play that a bit, back in high school.
                              Marcus Wilker
                              Annex Chess Club
                              Toronto, Ontario

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