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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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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Is there a balanced chess system where players of unknown skill can have an equal chance of winning?
Is there a chess system where you can make players of differing skill levels compete against each other with an equal chance to win without using different chess variations?
This system should give ...
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On an infinite board, which pieces are needed to checkmate?
Most of the winnable endgames require cornering the opposing king to checkmate, often using zugzwang. However, if you have an infinite board (infinite in every direction), you won't be able to corner ...
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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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How to determine the value of a piece from scratch?
Assume we have a standard chess set setup, but we make a slight change so that (for example) pawns can now move two squares forward on any move rather than just on their initial move. Even assuming ...
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Chess960 or Chess959?
Once in 960 times, Chess960 should just be the same as regular chess. Are there any known instances of this? Or is this selection automatically excluded, after which they just roll the dice again? So ...
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Is there any position where not promoting (illegally) would be the best move?
Is there any position, where moving a pawn to last rank but not promoting it to any piece would be the best move?
By the way, I know this is an illegal move. Assume it is legal.
Edit: Now we have a ...
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Resources on chess variants
While posting this question, I stumbled on this list of variants from Wikipedia, which I must admit is totally awesome.
I know a few online servers allow a few variants, but am not aware of places ...
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What other games or chess variants are useful to improve your chess skills?
I know about Chess960, and you can play that online at lichess.org. Furthermore, I like playing Go as well. But are there any good variants and other ways to train that you use, and you know to work ...
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Crazyhouse/Bughouse openings
Are there any known or "standard" openings in bughouse or crazyhouse chess? Obviously, as soon as pieces start coming off the board things get less predictable, so this question is less about the ...
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Shorter game for play with kids
I am teaching my children (5 and 7) to play chess, and we are pretty much at the which piece can move where phase. However while they do enjoy the game, they don't really have an attention span that ...
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Bizarre pin rule: pinned pieces do not attack
I found this guy who likes playing chess, but not enough to bother reading the rules; he only plays using a physical board with his sister (she doesn't know the rules either).
The made up rule was ...
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Is Chaturanga/Shatranj an early form of chess or is this altogether different?
I had heard from someone that Chess evolved from Chaturanga then Shatranj. Are there any pointers towards this?
I would like to know counter arguments as well, if any.
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What material handicap would be required to compensate for a single double-move?
Consider the following chess variant:
Black can, once per game, make two moves in a row (the second move may not capture the King)
To compensate for this advantage, Black gets a material handicap
...
user2659
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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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Is the pawns only variant a draw?
In the pawns-only variant of chess, each side starts with 8 pawns and a king on the usual squares, no pieces,
with other rules being the same as in regular chess, including promotion.
While general ...
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Are there any Chess960 positions where Black has the advantage?
I've heard it said that some Chess960 positions have a significant advantage for White, usually involving fast attacks against undefended pawns. However, since zugzwang positions do exist, it's ...
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How much material is needed to force the capture of a lone queen (for example in horde chess)?
In horde chess, the following starting position is used:
[FEN "rnbqkbnr/pppppppp/8/1PP2PP1/PPPPPPPP/PPPPPPPP/PPPPPPPP/PPPPPPPP w - - 0 1"]
The goal of White is to checkmate Black; the goal ...
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Tactical difference between chess and Chinese chess
Is there any difference in tactics between chess and Chinese chess? If so, which one is the most fun? What are the important things to learn from it?
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How many moves of head start does white need for a guaranteed win?
As we all know, it is not known whether white can always win in chess with optimal play. If, however, white got to make two moves before black made their first move would they be able to win with ...
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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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In Hand and Brain chess, is the stronger player generally preferred to be the hand or the brain?
Exactly what it says on the tin, as the British say:
In Hand and Brain chess, is the stronger player generally preferred to be the hand or the brain?
And secondarily:
Is the answer to the previous ...
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How do computers play three-check chess?
How do computers evaluate three-check chess positions where the first side to check the other side three times wins?
How do they value the first and second checks?
It looks like the position ...
user11382
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Is the result in mini-chess known with perfect play?
I do not know, if "mini-chess" is the official name of the game I am talking about.
In mini-chess, the players only start with the pawns (In particular, there are no kings!)
The players ...
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Would bishops be stronger or weaker on the same coloured squares?
Assuming one or both players makes a mistake and transposes a bishop and the adjacent knight when setting up the board, would this help or hinder them?
The answers to this similar question suggest it'...
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Why can't a dropped pawn deliver checkmate in Shogi?
In discussion surrounding another recent question, the fact came up that a "dropped" pawn in Shogi isn't allowed to deliver immediate checkmate, whereas any other type of piece can be dropped to ...
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Are there any bughouse chess engines?
A friend told me its very hard to implement a bughouse chess engine because it requires much more processor power than a regular chess engine.
Are there any bughouse engines out there ? if not, what ...
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What are the shogi equivalents of Fool's and Scholar's mate?
In western chess, the Fool's mate and Scholar's Mate are two well-known mates that take very few moves from the starting position. What would be the shogi equivalents to these, or, more generally, ...
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How to weakly solve Tiger Hunt, Atlantis Chess and Peasants' Revolt
Tiger Hunt is a chess variant where an entire army without a queen fight against a royal amazon (tiger, queen+knight). I believe it is certainly a win for the army just like Marahaja and Sepoys. I ...
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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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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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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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Can you castle twice in Chess960?
Consider this Chess960 game. (Warning: moving backwards through this replayer will result in an incorrect board state. See Board playback and Chess 960 for details.)
[FEN "rnkqbbnr/pppppppp/8/8/8/...
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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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Horde Chess Guide? [closed]
I have recently discovered Horde Chess on lichess.org and was wondering if there is somewhere a online guide on some openings or on some general tactic?
I'm really a beginner in general chess itself ...
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How likely is it that a non-orthodox promotion is optimal?
Underpromotion is an interesting aspect of chess, but there are other possibilities that aren't allowed under modern rules.
One is the so called "dummy pawn" as this question discusses:
When (if ever)...
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Are there any inherent problems with point-symmetric random chess?
The regular setup of chess is mirror-symmetric: If you mirror the positions of all figures on the equator of the board (between the fourth and fifth rank) and swap the colours, nothing changes. It is ...
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Are knights more powerful in Duck Chess?
In the chess variant Duck Chess (full rules), each player moves the shared blocking "duck" piece to any free square on their turn, taking away one or more moves for the opponent.
One ...
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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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Official rules for castling in Chess960? (Is there a loophole?)
Note: this is another rules-lawyering question.
I first ask for an official source I am calling into question the phrasing of the rules. Then I consider a few plausibly official sources, and point ...
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About the 3D chess they play on Star Trek
They play a type of 3D chess on Star Trek ( the 60's series) not on a 8x8x8 3D board but on some smaller variation. Yet the game as they have it is supposed to be complicated. Are there real rules and ...
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Why did Kung Fu Chess shut down?
Kung Fu Chess, a chess variant in which there are no turns (everyone can move at once with a time delay for each piece), began in 2002 by Shizmoo games, and the website suddenly went offline in 2008 ...
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What chess *scoring* alternatives exist?
Chess (often being classified as a sport) stands almost alone among sports in that its results are of a strictly ternary nature that is not quantified any further: The only possible outcomes are a win,...
user3297
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Does the chick promotion rule in dobutsu shogi really matter?
In dobutsu shogi, the chick (Japanese pawn) promotes to a chicken (Gold general). In my experience this promotion occurs only rarely and I suspect after much blundering.
Does the chick promotion rule ...
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Moving into check for a draw as black, why is it illegal? Comparison to Racing Kings
I am confused why you cannot move into a check when it can force your opponent to capture your king and expose theirs. In such a case why is there no extra move to result in a draw?
In the "Racing ...
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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 would the min max algorithm of a chess engine work in the case of 3 player chess?
I understand that for 2 player chess if an engine is playing white, then the engine uses a min max algorithm, which assumes that black will always make the move that is best for black, or worst for ...
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Has loser chess been solved?
Loser chess has a benefit of sorts. There are many turns where moves are forced. So my question is, has it been solved? I'd say that the move tree is much smaller than chess. If not:
How much would ...
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About Alan Turing and chess
I read Turing had some algorithm or method he could use to play chess 'against' this pen and paper algorithm assigning certain numerical values to each piece. Is this true? Is there a pen and paper ...
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Variant in which two pieces can occupy a single square
A friend and I tried playing this variant yesterday. My question is:
Surely someone has looked at this before. Does it have a standard name? Or is there something obviously wrong with it that my ...
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