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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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 "...
bof's user avatar
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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.
user36271's user avatar
-1 votes
1 answer
170 views

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 ...
walen's user avatar
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1 answer
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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 ...
Reuben Baldry's user avatar
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0 answers
89 views

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?
Cerise's user avatar
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1 answer
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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.
Puck's user avatar
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1 answer
214 views

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 ...
Cerise's user avatar
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13 votes
1 answer
6k views

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 ...
Mona Evans's user avatar
8 votes
3 answers
397 views

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 & ...
Laska's user avatar
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6 votes
0 answers
218 views

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 ...
Therac - Peace for Palestine's user avatar
2 votes
1 answer
152 views

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: ...
Gaussler's user avatar
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2 answers
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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 ...
Cyriac Antony's user avatar
13 votes
1 answer
3k views

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 ...
Andreas Tsevas's user avatar
0 votes
0 answers
35 views

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 ...
Cyriac Antony's user avatar
5 votes
13 answers
2k views

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 ...
Cyriac Antony's user avatar
1 vote
0 answers
64 views

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 ...
Matthew's user avatar
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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 ...
Aiden Chow's user avatar
3 votes
1 answer
213 views

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 ...
Andreas Tsevas's user avatar
4 votes
2 answers
167 views

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 ...
Aiden Chow's user avatar
4 votes
0 answers
83 views

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 ...
Lucenaposition's user avatar
1 vote
0 answers
54 views

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 ...
Csoriburi's user avatar
4 votes
2 answers
185 views

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. ...
Aiden Chow's user avatar
1 vote
1 answer
62 views

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 ...
domotorp's user avatar
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3 votes
0 answers
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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 ...
Laska's user avatar
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4 votes
1 answer
157 views

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). ...
Steve Bennett's user avatar
4 votes
1 answer
237 views

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, ...
Brian Towers's user avatar
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6 votes
1 answer
197 views

Hourglass chess timer

Consider the following time control idea (which obviously would not be implemented with a sand clock, but a modern electronic clock): The hourglass starts in neutral, each move reverses it. Thus any ...
Hauke Reddmann's user avatar
2 votes
2 answers
152 views

Is there a website that records the moves of a chess game in video or gif format, and also allows illegal moves?

I've wanted to record some chess games in 2d video or gif form from a version that I made that has different rules, but it won't allow me to import it because it has illegal moves. Is there a way to ...
joca9's user avatar
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2 answers
208 views

Do chess960 and chess differ for reasons 'far beyond just opening theory'? [closed]

David said in What exactly does Bobby Fischer mean by 'talent' re 'I'm better than Morphy' in 2005 (probably re chess960)? The differences between classical chess and 960 go far ...
BCLC's user avatar
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0 answers
72 views

Engine for Pawn Sideways Chess

Is there an engine I can download or buy that plays the variant described by AlphaZero in which pawns have additional sideways moves in addition to their regular moves? Fairy-Stockfish does not yet ...
Someone211's user avatar
4 votes
1 answer
158 views

Chess variants with less tactics and more strategy?

I really enjoy standard chess, but I was wondering out of pure curiosity: are there variants (or other non-chess games), that diminish the importance of tactics and put more emphasis on strategy? I ...
shintuku's user avatar
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1 answer
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Armageddon: How much more desirable is black in chess than chess960 based on airthings masters 2023 vs 2022 WFRCC?

All games in question are 15 minutes. In the 4 armageddon games in the 2022 (inaugural rapid, not the real, classical) WFRCC (both qualifiers and final 8), the Black winning bids are: 13,13,11:10,11:...
BCLC's user avatar
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0 votes
0 answers
51 views

Chess960 castling controversies in the 2019 vs 2022 WFRCC, where both are Nepo vs Wesley So

Why did Ian Nepomniachtchi get a replay for the castling issue in the 2019 WFRCC vs Wesley So, but Wesley So didn't get a replay for the castling issue in the 2022 WFRCC vs Nepo? I mean I know the ...
BCLC's user avatar
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0 answers
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Chess960 castling controversy in the 2019 WFRCC: Where can I see the original Nepo vs Wesley So game?

Apparently in the 5th game Ian Nepomniachtchi originally had to play 13. Rf1 instead of 13. 0-0 but then they allowed Nepo to replay the whole game. The ff is the replay game: https://lichess.org/...
BCLC's user avatar
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1 vote
1 answer
56 views

What were all the chess960 armageddon games played in St Louis Chess 9LX and the WFRCC, and which colour won in each?

Well I think I know for 2019 WFRCC 3rd qualifying round and onwards 2022 WFRCC qualifiers quarter-finals and onwards Every Chess 9LX If anyone knows and has bothered to check the previous rounds, ...
BCLC's user avatar
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3 votes
1 answer
121 views

Is there any UCI GUI for arbitrary variants?

I have a UCI-compatible chess engine which I modified to play a chess variant (gravity chess, where all non-pawn pieces fall towards increasing rank). However, there's no easy way to play against the ...
416E64726577's user avatar
4 votes
1 answer
571 views

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 ...
BCLC's user avatar
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0 votes
0 answers
413 views

Why was the 2019 WFRCC called 'slow rapid' when it's actually classical (45+15=60)?

I'm asking about the '45 minutes for 40 moves plus 15 minutes for the rest, without increment' portions of the matches (for the quarter-finals, semi-finals and finals), which consisted of those and ...
BCLC's user avatar
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1 vote
1 answer
165 views

Why didn't Wesley So get full championship privilege in the 2022 WFRCC unlike Magnus and Vishy did since 2008?

Wesley So didn't get full championship privilege in the 2022 WFRCC unlike Magnus and Vishy did from 2008 to 2021. They got only 1 opponent to defend against, namely the unique winner of a candidates ...
BCLC's user avatar
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0 votes
2 answers
276 views

How does FIDE define slow rapid & fast rapid?

I don't think I've ever heard these terms 'slow rapid' and 'fast rapid' outside chess960. Just now I tried looking up "slow rapid" "chess" "fast rapid" and "slow ...
BCLC's user avatar
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0 votes
1 answer
127 views

In the 2019 WFRCC, did anyone catch up in a match after losing in the 'slow rapid' (classical?) portion?

From Wikipedia Each match of the quarterfinals consisted of two “slow” rapid games (45 minutes for 40 moves plus 15 minutes for the rest, without increment), two “fast” rapid games (15 minutes plus 2 ...
BCLC's user avatar
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1 vote
0 answers
67 views

On an Torodial board, which pieces are needed to checkmate?

I saw this question On an infinite board, which pieces are needed to checkmate? and was inspired by it. Many mating combinations won't suffice on a toroidal board. For example, queen vs king will be a ...
blademan9999's user avatar
1 vote
1 answer
233 views

How can I get a chess engine to play custom chess variants?

How can I get a chess engine to play custom chess variants, for example Los Alamos chess, anti-chess, or chess where pawns can only advance one square?
qwr's user avatar
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3 votes
1 answer
233 views

Opening Theory in Hexagonal Chess?

Is there any opening theory in Glinski's hexagonal chess (rules here)? If so what are some standard openings?
Brian Towers's user avatar
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5 votes
1 answer
140 views

Are bishops and knights more powerful than rooks on an 8x8x8 board given these rules?

Let's say that on an 8x8x8 board rooks can move any number of spaces, only moving through one dimension at a time. Bishops move the same number of spaces in exactly 2 dimensions at a time. Knights ...
Anders Gustafson's user avatar
2 votes
1 answer
2k views

Where can I get a free engine to play Hexagonal Chess?

This question asks about the rules for Glinski's hexagonal chess. If I want to play a game of Glinski's hexagonal chess against the computer where can I get a free downloadable engine?
Brian Towers's user avatar
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5 votes
1 answer
135 views

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 ...
Anders Gustafson's user avatar
8 votes
4 answers
2k views

Is there an engine for Duck Chess?

Is there a chess engine for the chess variant Duck Chess? If not, is there a known plan of development of such an engine?
Minot's user avatar
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3 votes
1 answer
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Would a stalemate declared a win be theoretically equivalent to this larger board chess variant?

Most drawn endgames where one side is stronger than the other (e.g. has an extra pawn) are drawn because the weaker king can force being stalemated on the rim if the stronger side avoids a repetition. ...
Hauptideal's user avatar
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5 votes
2 answers
181 views

How much of a handicap is it to have more than one piece that can't be taken?

In the first Harry Potter movie, Harry Potter And The Philosophers Stone, towards the end, Harry, Ron and Hermione have to win a game of chess while they themselves have to act as pieces. Now, I'm no ...
Troels M. B. Jensen's user avatar

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