Chess variants

[Hugh Brodie]

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

[Kevin Pacey]

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).

[Roger Patterson]

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]

[Tom O'Donnell]

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.

[Kevin Pacey]

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.

[Gary Ruben]

Re: Chess variants

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.

[Egidijus Zeromskis]

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".