If you calculate with pawns: Queen 9, both rooks 9,knight and bishop 3, and 8 pawns you need 38 Pawns for black then you have a balance.

To change the game for a better balance we can try to play with two Maharadjas one on a1 and one on h1?

I like the idea but what would the winning position for black be? Would there still be checks?

One rook is like 5 pawns I think

Has anyone ever played team chess? Where you have a partner on your team? When you capture a piece form your opponent, you give this piece to your partner to use wherever he/she wants. This was great fun back in my junior high school days. I wonder if this can be implemented here?? Fencer, any possibility??

How about a Maharajah that lasts for, say, 35 moves achieves a draw and 50 moves a win, irrespective of checkmates. The numbers may need to be adjusted. This then places an onus on black to actively pursue checkmate rather than let it happen as a matter of course as pieces are marched down the board.

There is a chess variant which has a piece which moves like a knight but with added advantage of also being able to go 3 squares forward and one square to the left or right. The piece can therefore, in the optimum location, cover 16 squares instead of the knight's usual 8. If these moves were added to the current Maharajah (so that he had bishop, rook, knight and knight+ moves) it would really add some oomph to the piece. Maybe this could be implemented as a (another) variant, maybe called Maharajah Plus. Fencer?

I think that the second suggestion (more move abilities to maharajah) is definitely worth trying.

Sounds great, but I don't think anyone would be my partner :(

Hmmm, it would be pretty difficult to synchronize four players.

Something about this game too. I ay stop all the variations, just ban the top 50 chess openings from matches...

Whisperz, not be your partner?? What are you talking about, you've got an awesome rating! lol...

I don't know much about programming, but how hard would it be "synchronize"? Hmm, it would be 2 separate games actually, and when I win a piece instead of giving it back to me, like in Loop Chess, you just give it to my partner! Then if one of loses, we both lose, obviously. I think the hard part would be setting up invites and finding partners first before you have a formal invite to a match? Well, what do I know, I'm just a banker, with no knowledge of programming! But would love to see it though...

The two games would have to be connected and prolly shown split screen.

And also, one player could purposely prolong their move if they know their opponent can capture a rook for example, and not play their move until they get that rook.

Well it sounds like people are saying it would be too hard.... but,

1) you can tie the moves together, so your partner can't move until you do, and

2) you dont need to show both screens. maybe just a link will do?

But like I said I'm not a programmer, and others would know better, and it sounds like it will be too difficult to do... oh well...

my feeling is that in horde chess black seems kind of overpowering

feel free to message me with your thoughts

It is actually white's game, normally. If black leaves an empty column, white can go in with a rook or queen and start at the back taking all black's pawns, with nothing black can do. It is very hard not to eventually leave an open column as black. Try it.

Does a Double check count as one or two checks against your opponents King?

Double check counts as one check.

oh?

I'm waiting for that to happen ")

Another suggestion: We play with the regular chesset (both sides) with the one exception:
The queen is changed to the maharajah.

I saw an idea where someone suggested the maharajah be given extra moves, those of a knight that can move in a 3-1 L. I do not believe this will change things a whole lot. The problem is, white cannot make any kind of attack on a defended piece, since it has no piece to back up a capture with. It is not difficult for black to keep all his pieces defended. Losing as black is inexcusable. Heck, losing a PIECE as black is inexcusable. I lost a rook in one game only because I failed to notice it was threatened. That is a pure careless error, it was not the result of clever play by my opponent.

Regarding what one person said about having 35 moves be a draw and 50 be a loss. That also does not work. The game appears to be a forced win for black in approximately 20 moves, as was demonstrated to me by a player whose name I cannot remember. It might have been whisperz.

The only way ot make this a game (right now it hardly qualifies as one, given the tremendous advantage that black has) is to add more pieces for white. Gary Barnes suggested having THREE maharajah pieces, one of them a King maharajah and theo ther two Queen maharajahs. The queen ones can be lost, but not the King. Even then black may have an advantage.

Uil-- I saw that you posted that you are undewfeated as white (although it seems like you have since picked up one loss). This is surprising, but it doesn;t prove much. It had to be careless play by your opponents that resulted in all those wins as white.

I am willing to guarantee that I will win this game as blakc against ANYONE. I am not even willing to do that in pente or Keryo pente, despite not having lost once yet as player 1 in either game.

The game of maharajah may have history, but it need to be changed. If the purists are bothered by this, then call it something different. But as it stands now, I cannot see any reason to play maharajah chess.

Good to see the discussion has again begun. Most of the suggestions (he says pushing his chest out boasting :) ) were probably mine. Each has some merit but my favourite is the extra extended knight 3-1L move. As DK says, black can play such that all pieces protect each other, but what it does do is allow white to treaten the black King without interference from a string of pawns. Without playing the game I am not sure if this sufficient force to prise open a black defence but think it is really worth a try.

And on another matter, I would like to join the queue to play black against Uil's white Maharajah :)

How'd I lose alllllll of those pieces???????
game: 71418
{KaTt runz back to the rookie korner :P }

I think you might need to reread the rules. Basically, when you or an opponent takes a piece all the pieces on adjacent squares (except pawns) belonging to both sides are also taken in the "atomic" explosion. Awesome really!

Ohhhhh...
I see!!!
It DOES pay to read the rules; not merely skim...LOL!!
Thanx!

I've played a few games of this now. It does appear there is at least one "perfect" game for black. Of the suggestions below, the only ones that might address the existance of a relatively simple perfect game are the 1-3 move and the addition of extra maharaj pieces, IMO. I like both ideas but I think you'd have to play them out to see if it worked in practice.

To all -

Dmitri King previously mentioned that I had suggested a way to even up this game by having 2 'Queen' Maharajah's (able to be captured) and 1 'KING' Maharajah (must be checkmated like a King to win). Here are some more particulars on that.

I think that it SHOULD be obvious to ALL experienced players that Black should win by force in less than 30 moves with the current rules in Maharajah Chess. (Forced mate in 30 or less.) The fact that black could simply FORCE a minimum of a draw by moving a Knight back and forth while white wonders around aimlessly is also a telling factor. But of course, it would not make sense for black to settle for a draw. It is just a BIG tipoff to black's advantage.

Here's a simplified analysis of the value of pieces to make this into a reasonably even game for both sides. In regular chess, the pieces are assigned the following point values: Queen 9 points, Rook 5 points, Bishop & Knight 3 points, and Pawns 1 point.

In my opinion, a piece that can move like a queen and knight all by itself is somewhat more valueable than a queen and knight separately, simply because all alone, it covers ALL areas of a 5x5 zone if it is 2 spaces away from an edge and could quickly and easily mate a king even with a couple of other minor pieces around. So if a Queen and Knight separately are worth 12 points, I'll assign the regular Maharajah piece a value of 14 points. BUT...and a BIG BUT, the fact that this piece is like a King and cannot be captured reduces his value quite a bit. I'll say by 3 points. So I would say that the white's current Majahara piece is worth about 11 points.

Now if you add up the ENTIRE side of black's pieces, you come up with 40 points (counting the King as 1 point). Now I would say that you should reduce the value of each pawn by 1/2 point because they cannot promote to a queen or other piece. The reduction is 4 points there. So the total 'value' of black's pieces is 36 points.

So black is playing with a 36-11 piece value advantage. It's like playing over THREE queens down!!! NOW, you know why black has such an overwhelming advantage!!!!!

I have seen several suggestions here and NONE of them are enough to even up the sides. Some have said the following: give white the loop possibility, give him 4 pawns, give him 8 pawns, give him the Knight+ moves, or even give him ANOTHER Majahara! NONE of these is NEARLY enough. Even TWO Majahara's would be a BIG disadvantage. By BIG, I mean amongst experts (2000+ FIDE or USCF rating), black would win 95+% of the time. (Probably more like 99%+)

Here's an analysis of what I think that it would take to even the sides up. First I'll give some definitions:
Majahara Queen = Majahara piece that CAN be lost but still moves like a queen and knight. (As shown above, the value of this piece is ABOUT 14 points.)
Majahara King = Piece like now that CANNOT be lost or moved into check. (The current Maharajah piece valued above at about 11 points.)

Based on this, here is what should even up the sides. Have 2 'Queen' Maharajah pieces and 1 'King' Maharajah piece for white. The total value of these pieces would be: 14 + 14 + 11 = 39 points.

Now, black MUST be able to promote his pawns if he reaches the back rank so as to bring the value of his pieces back to the usual opening point value in regular chess of 40 points.

With a 40-39 point count on pieces, there should be some VERY interesting games where White could perhaps sacrifice one or two Queen Maharajah's to pick off a slew of black pieces and ultimately move in for a mate using the King Maharajah. Or black could maticulously and carefully march his pawns down to promote them so that he can fight off and capture the powerful Queen Maharajah's so that he can finally mate the King Maharajah. I foresee that black would need to queen 2 or even 3 or more pawns so that he could finally move in and trap the King Maharajah or pick off the Queen Maharajah's as needed.

THAT would be VERY interesting and I could see some VERY long and drawn out battles amongst high-level players, perhaps lasting 100 moves or more!!!

I'd be curious to hear everyone's thoughts on this.


Gary Barnes

After 7 matches with my good friend & nemesis, Indiagonal Jones, all of which I lost, I finally pulled out a win! Proving, I guess, that perseverence pays. Please see my #8 game: Game #85675.

It is of no use to compare "points" as you have
done. This is only of occasional use in real
chess since the point system was created for that
game. That point system does not make sense in
horde chess.

I have been informed that Loop chess as played here, is similar to a 4-player variant called bughouse chess. Upon doing a Google search on that latter topic, I found a site that discussed some interesting ideas that might apply to Loop. I copy them here & hope they will be of some relevance to we Loop players...

Piece Values:

Most serious chess players are familiar with the Piece Value Table: Q=9, R=5, B and N=3, P=1. In bughouse however, the values are completely different. While there is no general consensus on bughouse values, here is an approximation.

Q=10, N=7, R=4, B=2, P=1

The knight and queen rule the bughouse chessboard. The queen often can be placed into a position with mate. The knight is useful as well because it can check from a distance and not be blocked. Many bughouse mating attacks begin with a sacrifice on KB7 followed by a knight check. For example, after 1.e4 e5 2.d4 exd4 3.Nf3 Nc6 4.Bc4 Bc5 5.Bxf7+ Kxf7 6.Ng5+ all white needs is a queen for f7 and black will get mated. The bishops value is seriously diminished, as it often performs no better than a pawn, and sometimes not even as well. The pawns promotion abilities may in some positions be worth significantly more than a bishop.

Sometimes we learn from our mistakes, & sometimes we don't even learn from our sucesses. Observe this recent win of mine:
#109725. Nice smothered mate, no?

But then later, came this: #101783. No need to finish that. Sometimes I wonder where my brain has gone!

At least it brought to mind the title of this little note, explained below.

“To be hoist by one's own petard,” a now proverbial phrase apparently originating with Shakespeare's Hamlet (around 1604) not long after the word entered English (around 1598), means “to blow oneself up with one's own bomb, be undone by one's own devices.”

howdy, ifn you wanna play CE just send an invite or take one of my games from the waiting room and good luck.....:-)

this game and anti-chess seem like an all out front dedicated to a main purpose that often involves sacrificing a piece. For example, a player may knowingly take the pawn in front of a king, which puts the queen into danger from the opponents queen, but it is worth one check. My proposal is that these games be called something like Kamikaze chess or something.

It's an interesting point. With plenty of pieces still on the board I think two checks is usually good value for a piece. One check can go either way so involves delicacy of judgement.

I'm anyone....waiting for you to play....

Now only 1 more player & we can start.

I cant't place my last piece, I've put all my pawns in different squares and bishops in different colors !
I tried to keep another piece as last one, but nothing changes...

What piece is it? Does it let you click on its picture on the right?

Yes, the last piece (whatever piece is) highlights, then I click it over the board but it remains outside...

I have had some problems with removing pieces...sometimes it doesn't remove the piece when i click on it.

But this problem might be that the page isn't refreshing properly - did you try refreshing the page after you clicked on the board?

my feeling is the game is ok i have played as black and won.just have to restrict whites pieces rather than attack.

I like it Gary- it would be interesting to see some games, for sure. I would wonder though, whether or not having three such compact and powerful pieces might not give an advantage though.

jestone, you wrote :
"While there is no general consensus on bughouse values, here is an approximation.
Q=10, N=7, R=4, B=2, P=1"

Do you think that these values are also applicable for Loop Chess? Otherwise, which are values for this last game?

By looking on the Web, I found the other proposed values :
Q=4, N=2, R=2, B=2, P=1

Anybody can say to me what we can retain of it?

Is it anybody can say to me if for Loop chess, a promoted pawn which is captured becomes again a pawn as to Crazyhouse or keeps the promotion as for Chessgi?

It stays as promoted so be careful.

OK, thanks ughaibu.

I suggest to change the less played "Corner Chess" in the more public "Fischerrandom Chess". The new name is Chess 960 because of the 960 possible startpositions.
Rules are here : http://www.chessvariants.com/diffsetup.dir/fischer.html