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A friend challenged me to a chess variation I have never heard of.

  • All chess rules apply.
  • If you have an opportunity to take a piece, you must take it, you cannot avoid or block exchanges.
  • The only piece that cannot be taken is the king and there's no checkmate but you can check the king, and you can castle.
  • The strategy is to force your opponent to take all your pieces.
  • The winner is the one who has no pieces on board except the king.

Questions:

  1. Have you ever heard of this variation before? What is it called? Is it formally recognized like chess960?
  2. I played black and lost all the matches. Does white have a decisive advantage since he can play d4 followed by bh6 and lose a piece and stay one move ahead? This variation does not seem fair because it looks like a race to lose everything, hence white will win the race by force every time.
  3. If this chess exists and have a community, what are the main tactics and strategies? Especially when playing black.
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I played black and lost all the matches. Does white have a decisive advantage since he can play d4 followed by bh6 and lose a piece and stay one move ahead?

According to Dr Mark Watkins of The University of Sydney, losing chess has been solved and White can force a win with 1. e3:

The move 1. e3 has been solved as a win for White under both FICS and International Rules. The final leg was actually much easier than expected, as I wasted around a year on false leads. In fact, the not-too-deep idea 1. e3 b6 2. a4 e6 3. Ra3 Bxa3 4. Nxa3 Qh4 5. a5 bxa5 6. Qh5! leads to some queen races where White just needs a bit deeper search to show a good score

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  • sorry i meant d3 or e3 but even then white doesn't have to take the pawn – Lynob Oct 5 '16 at 12:12
  • Hi @Lynob. Could you post a sample variation that was played. 1. d3 h6 2. Bxh6 gxh6 looks good for Black to me. – user1108 Oct 5 '16 at 12:29
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I suppose this chess variation is called Anti-chess. You can also play it online on lichess.com, chess.com(new version).

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  • it's not exactly anti-chess in that the king keeps a special status, which it has not on lichess – Nikana Reklawyks Oct 28 '16 at 9:26
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The variation I used to play is suicide chess, where the king can be captured. I have not heard of your variation though

Answers To Your Questions:

  • No, Chess960 is when both sides start with identical starting pieces but the pieces on the 1st and 8th files have been scrambled.
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