I had an idea for a chess variant tonight. It would be called something like slide-rule chess. One horizontal row in a regular chess game would randomly slide one space to the right or left, with all the pieces on them, after every move.

I noticed Korean Chess hasn't been mentioned for over a year, is it still being worked on? It's not that different from Chinese Chess so it shouldn't take too long to implement...

Ultima is a very good chess variant that was invented by Abbott in the early 1960s. It is has been one of my favourite variants of the past two decades. I would love to see the game at this site, possibly with a tweak or two in the rules. I have some very good suggestions as to minor rule changes, having played hundreds of games of this variety. Is anyone else interested in seeing ULTIMA at brainking.com?

jannix: No spam please! And this board is only for chessvariants  which are not supported here.
Message was deleted.

The Standerd rules apply, except in the following.
There is no notion of check, checkmate or stalemate. The player capturing the opponent's king wins.
Every piece has a charge generating a magnetic field, except the two kings which have a neutral charge. White pieces are positive, and Black are negative (or vice versa, of course :)
When a piece is moved to a specific square, their closest neighbours at the same rank and column (not diagonal) are repelled if they have the same charge (hence the same colour), and attracted if they have an opposite charge (hence have different colours). A king isn't repelled or attracted, doesn't repel or attract and has a blocking effect on the magnetic field lines
all pawns/pieces have a magnetic feild of 3 squares in all non-diaganol directions, and as soon as a piece or pawn is blocked by another piece, it stops moving.
Yes, bishops can change color.

Fencer: Flybaboo is a low-cost company which makes it a little bit nearer !

nabla: I wish I could drop by, if only it would be nearer to Prague.

Salkkuman: Same rules as the ones used on FICS and ICC for those who know them : pawn is promoted, remains physically a pawn but assumes the power of the announced piece. When captured it reverts into a simple pawn. No pawn drops on 1st/8th rows. Drop-check and drop-mate allowed.

nabla: Which rules do you use? pawn is promoted on hand/other board(this one is fun)/normally? Pieces can be placed as you like put not pawn in first row?

For those who like Bughouse (the fast and fun 4-player version of the game called Loop Chess here), I will organize a gathering in Geneva from August 18 to August 21.
Although Geneva is know as an expensive city, the gathering is one of the cheapest possible : if you register in the following weeks, you can get free accomodation, plus the usual free sandwiches and drinks for the whole gathering.
International participation will include the swede Maarten Aronsson, one of the world's best.
All details can be found here !

pleasepleaseplease:)

In most ways, it is the same as standerd chess.
The Exceptions
Pieces or pawns can travel through time according to the following rules:
1: The piece has to be next to the King
2: The King can't be in check
3: The peice can't travel more than 10 moves
4: The peice can only travel foward in time
5: If the King is in check on the move the peice was supposed to come in, and the only legal move is to move the King to get out of check, then the peice is lost in time, and it gets captured.
6. You cannot say "I have to move the Queen, so i'm going to let my pawn get lost in time." That is illegal.
7. The piece can appear at any empty square, and pawns cannot appear on the first or last rank
For the king, the same rules apply except #s 1 and 4.
Traveling back in time:
1. only the King can do it.
2. The King can't be in check
3. It is limited to 5 moves back
4. It is limited to 2 backwards moves per person
5. There has to be at least 1 other piece or pawn of the same color, and another King does not count.
Winning the game:
There are 3 ways to win the game.
1. Checkmate one or more Kings
2. Make your opponent's King lost in time
3. Fork 2 or more Kings in a way that your opponent can't capture the forking peice
An example of notation:
1. d2//to5 Nc6
2. e4 Nf6
3. Qg4 Nd4
4. e5 Nf3+xP
5. Qxf3 Ng4
6. K//to2
2. K a4// FTF
In this game, White sent a pawn to move 5, Then on move 4, Black Checked the White King, Which captured the pawn.
White sent his king back in time to undo
the pawn capture, and FTF means from the future.
I very much like this variant, and it would be easy to program.

Benedict Chess is quite fun. At least the few times I've tried it.

Fencer: I agree, of course !

nabla: I think it would be better if it does NOT revert to a pawn. Let's use it as it is, just like in Loop Chess.

Fencer: Yes, at least the last time I played with the inventor we played with promotions. We didn't have the case of a promoted piece being taken, I don't see why it should revert to a pawn (except for being bughouse-like), but I can ask him what he thinks about it.

nabla: One more question - is this game played with pawn promotions? And if so and a promoted pawn is captured, can it be recycled as the promoted piece or does it turn back to a pawn?

The player with the move selects a possible destination square, and his opponent chooses which one of the possible pieces moves to that square.
I would *very* much like to see that variant here, but I am probably biased as I invented it :-)
Details, examples and a playing board can be found here (still awaiting some updates).
I already talked with Fencer about this variant, but I am posting this in case some of you are interested to try it over the board. Transcriptions of played games that are sent to me will be included in the aforementioned web page !

Fencer: OK !

nabla: Synchronous version is easier to implement.

Fencer: Oops, I forgot that Bughouse was discussed here too. Do you really intend to use the synchronous version of bughouse (I don't think that it is popular at all, but it may not be that bad), or the standard version where you can play on either board at either time ? If playable, the latter would probably generate a lot of traffic, as some lost seconds can lose the game :-)

Fencer: No he can't (of course the king can capture other own pieces).

nabla: About the Recycle Chess discussion - can a player capture his own king?

Salkkuman: Yes, it is possible and planned.

andreas: I like this game on live really much. I think communication with the players is really important. That's why this game could be maybe played only with two players?(One players controls both boards). It would make it faster and easier.

sounds nice

It would be very nice to have a "synchrounus" version of Bughouse for 2-players here, see Bughouse and Tandem Chess, section "Bughouse per e-mail".

My new gamepreset at chessvariants.com:
http://play.chessvariants.org/pbm/play.php?game=Grosses+Schach+10x10&settings=Englisch_rules_1
Isn`t it nice?

Cubs93: Yes, bughouse is most cool, but it don't think it could be played here, as it is to be played only in live mode and with very fast time controls ; otherwise, there are very long and painful double sits (you and your partner's opponent both wait for the other to play).
You'll probably have to play Loop Chess instead (and I think that its close cousins Hostage Chess / Recycle Chess are scheduled for future implementation).

i think, perhaps is it fun to play the game "bug-house" here on BrainKing. It's a chess-variant with 4 players and 2 chessboards... and very cool!

Caissus: I like the Hammer a good deal. I saw your game a few days ago at ChessVariants.org and was pleased to see your name. I read about the GrosseSchach and was intrigued. A running knight swinging a mace--nice adaptation.

What do you think about this "Great Chess 10x10" and his new pieces,which I have presented two years ago:

http://caissus.gmxhome.de/Rulesgreatchess_10x10.htm

There are two small freeware programs to try it out:
http://caissus.gmxhome.de/grossdemo.zip and

http://www.cmpgo.de/chess/engl/indexe.html (Misc./Downloads)

The "Great Chess 10x10" was invented in Germany by Erwin Ortlauf and first published in the German chess magazine `ROCHADE Europa` 08/1997 as "Das Grosse Schach 10x10".

My actual game at chessvariants.com:
http://play.chessvariants.org/pbm/play.php?game%3DGrosses+Schach+10x10%26log%3Dcaissus-cvgameroom-2005-335-699%26userid%3Dcaissus

and I have another invitation open:
http://play.chessvariants.org/pbm/play.php?game=Grosses+Schach+10x10&log=caissus-cvgameroom-2005-342-477&submit=Accept

Walter Montego: To summarize--Superchess is chess with pieces from all throughout western chess history, plus some adaptations from eastern chess also, played on an 8x8 board, but can also be played on an 8x10 (or 10x8) or 10x10 board. Checkmate is the goal, and the piece army starts off as any chessgame, but in the "prelude" some pieces can be switched out according to a solid set of rules. It has been played for 3 years at the Corus Chess Tournament by amateur and GM alike. It is a very entertaining variant, more storylike in its approach to each game. Familiar chess principles apply.

manchildstein: By the way. Long time ago I wrote a zillions application of superchess.

Nasmichael: you can get a zillions of games implementation of american chess. if you look at chessvariants.org there is a page for american chess. i also wrote an application which facilitates email play but has no ai for play against the computer. the 'look' of the pieces in zillions was taken from the pbem prototype. you can see a screen shot at chessvariants.org or at http://americanchess.tripod.com

Walter Montego: If you click on the site on available pieces and then on exchess set 2, you see that it is available as wooden piece, so the site will mention it.

Lambik: In fact that site doesn't even mention the Emperor!

Lambik: The www.superchess.nl link worked fine. I went there, but it doesn't really have much in the way of how the game is played aside from saying you play it just like regular Chess after the pieces are set up during the prelude. Nor does it mention the Emperor being a second piece to have to threaten, nor any of these other powers you guys have been talking about. It just mentions adding some pieces at the begininng of the game and playing it just like regular Chess from there. It sounds as if this Superchess has been evolving on its own elsewhere. Deciding which pieces are allowed is half the game as far as playing it is concerned. IT also only mentions playing on a 8 × 8 board, but I see no reason that a different sized board couldn't be used.

As for playing on this site. Fencer's plan of having the creator make the game and then the person wanting to play would accept the set up and rules or not play will work, though it will eliminate negotiation for a tournament. It will have negotiation for games between to individuals though. As the invitee won't accept and start the game until some of his wants are addressed. This will force either player to create a new game and again have it reviewed and accepted by the other.

Walter Montego: You win a game of superchess by checkmating the king or emperor. If they are both in the game, you can give a doublecheck, which means that both are in check. The only way to uncheck your emperor AND king is by eliminating the piece(s) power that give check. There are some possibilities for it: capturing, freezing or protecting your royals with a protecting piece as the Nymf and the Angel.

I think board size is negiotable, but maybe Fencer will add four variants: 8x8, 10x8, 8x10 and 10x10. The set of pieces is pure negotiable. But here I think, the creator of a game chooses the set and if you agree with that, you play the game.

Link: www.superchess.nl or if it does not work, www.superschaak.nl and click on the english flag, because that site is mostly in dutch.

Nasmichael: I thought it was a simple question, but no one has told me how to win a game of Superchess.
So checkmating the King doesn't win the game? Or does it? And why should I care about the Emperor? What's this royal business? It sounds like this game adds new powers and restrictions besides the new pieces. From what I've seen posted it appears you get to choose your initial set of pieces from a catalog of pieces that you and your opponent agree to before the game starts. What size is the board? Is that negotiable too? Is there a link to the rules and description of this game?

What do you think about the Joker.

The Joker imitates the last move piece of your opponent. It could never be royal, nor it has the properties of the special pieces. It can be changed as a crypto-spy and you can change a Prince to a Joker. But the move is very tourh I think, because every move it could be different....

A strange set-up of superchess could be
Rook (R), Knight (N), Bishop (B), Emperor (Er), King (K), Counsellor (Cn), Veteran (V), Rook (R) on white's first row. With the same rules for castlingas in standards chess, you can castle with emperor and king. It is only possible to castle with both pieces, if the emperor and king castles "short", so
Castling with the emperor: Emperor to b1, Rook to c1 and with the king as usual.

manchildstein: A canon like in chines chess, could be very intersting, but I do not think that the creator will add pieces in the near future. Only some strange pieces which can only move or block other pieces are added and other pawns are added as all diagonal forms of the 6 pawns mentioned. By the way, also the clown is a piece like the squirrel. In fact it is the same as the baron,. but as all crypto-spies you can change them for one of the spies. That could be very inetersting, specially when your crypto-spy is on the seventh row. Note that all spies are allowed to promote.

manchildstein: It's called the Baron in Superchess. It is a very tough piece. Henk van Haeringen has written a book of laws and piece movements to codify the movements--check at his site. Thanks for your message about "American Chess"--have you made it possible to play at chessvariants.org?

Lambik: say, if you don't already have a 2,0 2,1 2,2 jumper, may i suggest the 'squirrel' addition to 'short range strong pieces?'... this piece is also known as the 'colonel' in 'american chess'... basically, jumps two in any direction... 16 possible squares to jump to (if it's not situated within 2 of the edge of the board)... i find it to be like a more-powerful knight... very versatile, but on the larger boards... limited range...

for long range/strong, my favorite is probably the pao/vao combination... a cannon with orthogonal/diagonal capabilities combined... anyway, superchess sounds like it will be a lot of fun... i can only hope american chess one day finds similar appeal... in any event i will have to play a game or two of superchess, once fencer gets it programmed...

Walter Montego: ...Or, if both monarchs are on the board, you have a game similar to Vernon Rylands Parton's "Twin King Chess".

Walter Montego: The Emperor is a royal piece (it can be substituted for the queen during the setup phase of the game, prior to piece movement phase); it has king movement plus the ability to move 2 squares vertically. Visualize the king castling in the standard game--it moves 2 squares horizontally. During the Italian domination of the old game, up until the late 1800s, the castling rules were more flexible, allowing the king to move several squares in combination with the rook. Prior to this, the king could move independently of the rook once in a game 2 squares horizontally, vertically, or diagonally, and take the rook with him as a personal guard. This Emperor is imitative of an earlier rule. In this particular case, the "King" can move vertically 2 squares as well as horizontally 2 squares, in the case of castling. That is a salute to the game in a more original, earlier form. Making this kind of substitution in the prelude phase allows for a tandem-ruler game with more than one target, or a switching of a targeted side, so as to reverse the weak-pawn from kingside to queenside. Tactically, you may want to hand your opponent a mental jab--"now let's see if you can adjust your pattern recognition to attack me on this side".