Questions tagged [chess-variants]
Questions about variants of normal chess including bughouse, Chess960 (Fischer Random), atomic chess, racing kings, crazyhouse, antichess, etc. Can be used together with a more specific chess-variant tag, like [chess-960], [bughouse], etc. (see tag wiki for suggestions).
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How much is the value of the wizard?
I came up with a new chess piece called the "Wizard".What it does basically is that it can switch places with any piece(except pawns) and for 1 move it has the attributes of the switched ...
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Bughouse chess strategies
Are there any nice strategies for Bughouse? I wish for advice on opening and how to win. I have not found anything good on the web.
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Baroque/Ultima vs. Chess
Baroque a.k.a. Ultima is a chess variant in which all the pieces except the kings have quite different powers than in regulation chess. They all make non-capturing moves like queens (except the "...
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Rules of Baroque chess
I want to do an AI project in implementing a Chess agent, so can anyone please let me know the Rules of Baroque chess.
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Does this chess variant exist, and has it ever been considered for official tournaments?
Inspired by this question: Why did Magnus Carlsen not play the World Chess Championship in 2023?
It's not the first time I've heard about GMs (not just Magnus Carlsen) being tired of the current state ...
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Viability of 4 player chess engines
I got into a discussion with a friend recently about the viability of 4 player chess engines. He claimed that they would be impossible to create at anywhere near the level of modern chess engines.
I'm ...
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How bad is Stockfish in Fog of War chess
Since in Fog of War chess you cant see all the board , I think that engines would suck at it.Have there been any attempts on playing engine tournaments under Fog of War chess?
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Chess Atomic Openings
I'm studying Atomic Chess. Where can I find openings at? I've found the site Vlasov's Atomic-Chess Homepage so far.
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Can one side force a loss in regular chess?
Chess is unsolved, so there is no known optimal strategy for one side to force a win or a draw.
However, is there an optimal strategy to lose? Consider a variant where checkmate results in a loss, ...
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What are the rules of Quantum Chess?
The game Quantum Chess, as seen in the video where Paul Rudd defeats Hawking, has no "set of rules" written down. You either have to do the in-game tutorial, watch a video on the game and pick them up....
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When was the last time Magnus Carlsen lost 2 classical games in a row to the same player besides to Wesley So?
Related questions:
When was the last time Magnus Carlsen lost 3 classical games in a row besides to Wesley So?
When was the last time Magnus Carlsen lost 2 classical games in a row to the same ...
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Why can't I move my knight from d5 to c7?
I am a foreigner learning to play chess with my computer. The blue move is the last move and the red one is suggested to go.
I wonder why I can't move my knight anymore. The computer doesn't allow me ...
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Who has the edge in "gg chess"?
EDIT: I think a better name is gg chess, because "gg" (good game) is what folks frequently say at the end of a game.
At major chess events, at the end of a drawn game, the players & ...
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Checkmate in ω² moves with finitely many pieces
The post Checkmate in ω
moves? has inspired a lot of discussion and mathematical research into positions on an infinite chessboard where white can mate in a transfinite amount of moves. The current ...
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How to calculate the number of combinations for Chess960 positions
Can someone derive how do we get the total number of 960 possible positions for Chess960?
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How much would chess change if Black always had the last move?
In a hypothetical minor variant, could White's first-move advantage be compensated for by Black's right to last move?
Normally, White wins have White play N+1 plies to Black's N. How would the game ...
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Where can I find mobile software for Fischer random chess?
Fischer had a chess variation (chess960) but I cannot find any mobile app to play it.
Does anyone knows where I can get the best software (if possible free or cheap) to play it?
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What's the point of attack board inversion?
In tri-dimensional chess some rule sets allow for the attack board to be moved from the peg on top of the main board to the peg on the underside (as long as the attack board is unoccupied). What is ...
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What is the idea behind 1. nh3 h6 in atomic chess?
On the Lichess analysis board for atomic chess, it suggests for white to play 1. nh3, an unorthodox move that seems to leave the knight in a terrible spot on the side. But even more bizarrely, the ...
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When is K vs K+R in antichess winning? How to win these endgames?
Note: This is not a question on standard chess, where obviously K+R vs K is a win for K+R.
Here are two example K+R vs K positions in antichess, both having white to play and white having K+R.
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What are the pros and cons of introducing chess 960 without castling as a new chess variant?
Chess 960 is a popular chess variant that can be played on many platforms. All rules are standard, except the starting position is randomly generated. Some of these 960 positions give more than usual ...
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Chess-like games and exercises that are useful for chess coaching
Chess 960 popularised by Fischer could be useful to teach opening principles (mainly because the players has to think about development consciously). LaPingvino asked "What other games or chess ...
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How to ask an AI engine to test this chess variant?
I would like to use an AI engine to test how well the following chess variant would work: The rules are as in usual chess, except
Castling is not possible; instead, the next rule takes its place:
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How do convert/parse/extract data from a PGN into a spreadsheet/google sheet/excel file?
Sequel to this question: Live statistics chess960 from chess.com?
So suppose I go to like
https://api.chess.com/pub/player/gmwso/games/2020/12
or
https://api.chess.com/pub/player/gmwso/games/2020/12/...
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What is Indian Castling exactly?
Western castling doesn’t exist in historical Indian Chess (Chaturanga). Instead, in some versions, there is a cool move whereby each king can once in the game make a knight's move.
I read that it is ...
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Record stockfish level 8 in atomic?
What is the shortest possible game against Stockfish at its hardest setting in
Atomic Chess? You cannot allow the computer to blunder the game on move 1 or 2, otherwise the shortest possible game is 3 ...
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Variation of chess where winner has to capture all pieces?
Is there any variation of chess where the winner has to take all of the opponents pieces rather than just force the capture of one of them ?
I guess sacrifices wouldn't work well in this variation of ...
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Is there a crazyhouse+bughouse chess variant?
I would like to know if the following chess variant or a closely related one exists.
There are 4 players, say 1 to 4. Players 1 and 2 form a team and play aginst players 3 & 4 team. Player 1 plays ...
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How to propose a new game variant?
My daughter and I have devised a chess variant which we feel works very well: it preserves the basic moves and strategies of chess, yet adds new strategies and considerations. It is a form of "3-D ...
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Phone apps for playing chess variants
A group of local friends and I have become fairly engrossed in playing a certain chess variant over the last few years. We play on a regular basis; we've coded a program that allows us to play online, ...
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How to gain a better understanding/intuition in queen races?
In antichess, queen races are when both players have their queens on opposite sides of the board, continually capturing each other's pieces.
In my experience playing antichess, queen races are very ...
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Mate-in-N problems where N scales indefinitely with board size
Motivation - Long range mating patterns
This question is inspired by my recent interest in infinite chess and the post on MathOverflow Checkmate in ω moves?. Since my chess endgame skills are quite ...
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If repetition loses, who wins KvK?
Suppose we're playing a version of chess where you lose if you repeat once an earlier position (position = arrangement of pieces + who's move it is). We're down to the wire, and we've just arrived at ...
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Looking for a chess variant with a circular board
I am looking for a certain chess variant played on a circular board.
The variant is played with the usual chess pieces (no fairies involved) on a peculiar circular board. The central part of the ...
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What are the best openings in Antichess?
I am experiencing Antichess and it's more forcing than normal chess.
What are the best openings for white ?
Is there any winning opening whatever the black does respond?
Antichess, according to ...
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King and short rook checkmate
Suppose White has a king and a range-x rook and black has a bare king on a chessboard with dimensions y times y.
What is the minimum value of x such that for all sufficiently large y, White, moving ...
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Is any research being done in penguin chess? Especially, is there a tablebase?
First here are the rules for penguin chess. Everything is the same as in normal chess, except:
Any piece, except the kings, can move to any empty square.
Pawns can't move to the 1st and 8th rank.
I ...
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Is bughouse a win for a team with excess time?
In bughouse it is a huge advantage during the game to have more time on your clocks than your opponents.
So I wonder what happens if one team starts with a time advantage (from now on called the time ...
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Opening Theory in Hexagonal Chess?
Is there any opening theory in Glinski's hexagonal chess (rules here)? If so what are some standard openings?
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Analysis of positions with only one king on the board?
Endgame positions with just one king on the board may be very rich. Has any analysis of simple positions done? Maybe even tablebases for small numbers of pieces?
There are some existing problems with ...
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Is it possible to put special pieces on a chess.com custom board?
I would really like to create custom positions with custom pieces (and maybe even variants) to play with my friends because we have always enjoyed playing custom variants. So for example a board with ...
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Why isn't chess played white 1 move, black 2 moves, white 2 moves and so on?
In turn based games like chess, the player playing the first move has an advantage the whole game. One way to "remedy" this is to let the player starting the game make one move (and have the ...
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A fun game (for problem composers, mostly...)
A game leading to a given position is called a proof game. Of course any proof game can be prepended with 1.Nf3 Nf6 2.Ng1 Ng8, so we defined a shortest proof game as, duh, the shortest possible proof ...
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Do amphibians usually have more synergy than other compound pieces?
Reading about fairy pieces I can see that an amphibian is a type of compound piece that has a larger range than either of it's components. For instance the 3 leaper is restricted to approximately 1/9 ...
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What are the rules of Shatranj?
According to this answer to this question (Is Chaturanga/Shatranj an early form of chess or is this altogether different?):
Chaturanga is the ancient game that gave birth to board games chess, shogi, ...
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What is the detailed meaning of Shad Yantra in the Dashpaad board (10x10)?
Shad Yantra (pronounced as Skhad Yantra or Shad Yantra) is the 6 Principles of War according to scholars. What are all these Shadgunya principles and how significant are they in this ancient dashpada ...
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Variant where White cannot lose?
I was pondering an asymmetrical variant where White's king is just a regular piece that moves like a normal king, but can be captured without consequence (and hence check for White does not exist). ...
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What sites have different ratings for different time controls for Chess960?
Both lichess and chess.com and have ratings for live chess960, but this is regardless of time control. Please recommend a site that has separate ratings for different time controls for chess960.
There ...
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Is there a name for a chess variant where you are allowed to capture your own pieces?
I occasionally think it might be fun to play a chess variant that is exactly the same as regular chess, except that it is permitted to capture your own pieces as well as your opponent's pieces - so, ...
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Name for the "folding magnetic chess set" variant?
Does anyone know the name of the chessboard variant where you fold a standard board along the line between the d-file and e-file, to get a double-sided 8x4 board? A piece on top can move past the edge ...