Thanks Fencer! My suggestion for this board is that we speak about some chessvariants to find out,which of these variants are interested for the players of BK.
And also you can continue to explain your ideas about the new invention "Imposter Chess" here!

What about Chinese Chess? Is there any good graphics available?

Yes,I compose material for you,boards and pieces and will send it to you in the next time.
Because of the strange type of original pieces,it would be perhaps useful to play this game with eastern or alternate with western pieces.

Thank you. It does not mean that I'll add this game next week but should put this task up at my TODO list :-)

I've been doing alot of thinking, and it is obvious that a real-life try-out of this game should be attempted. That's why I'm going to test the theory by playing the new variant on a standard chessboard offline.

When I get the results of this experiment, I will discuss them with my Co-Exec and then post to the board when there is a sturdy basic foundation of rules.

As always, keep those suggestions and opinions comin'! The more data we gather from YOU, the better the game!

  Best of luck to all future Variant Inventors!

Magenta Spiral
Imposter Chess© Inventor

There is one great chess variant, which is little known, but is very interesting: Anti-King Chess (invented by Peter Aronson). All rules are the same as in standard chess, except that a new piece is added: Anti-King. The Anti-King is under check when it is not attacked! It is a checkmate, if it can't leave such position. The Anti-King can't capture enemy pieces. At the start white Anti-King is placed on d6, black on d3.

I played this chess variants several times against Zillions-of-Games, but Zillions is not especially strong in it. It would be much more fun to play this chess variant on BrainKing!

So you can win by either checkmating your opponent's king (like regular chess), or disallowing your opponent to have his anti-king threatened?

Wow,looks very comlicated with kings and anti-kings :).

And also - i'm assuming the anti-king can not be captured?

Yes Kevin, you win by either checkmating your opponent's king, or disallowing your opponent to have his anti-king threatened. Anti-King cannot be captured.

More detailed rules can be found on http://www.chessvariants.com/diffobjective.dir/anti-king-chess.html, see "Anti-King Chess II".

Here are some "chess" idea's that took me a while 15 minutes to think of a couple of months ago. Since this board is here now, I'll post there here now!.

*******************
Froggy Chess:

1/2 of the pawns are replaced by froggies. They are placed on every other space along with the pawns (froggies go on the white squares). They can only move 2 spaces forwards, 2 spaces backwards, 2 spaces to each side, and 2 spaces diagnal. They can "jump" over other pieces. If they land on another piece, they capture it! (just like normal chess)

*******************
Camando Chess:

Before the game starts, each player picks a secret "camando" pawn piece. This piece can not be captured by other pawns. If another pawn tries to capture it, the attacking pawn is then "captured". (and then the other person would know which pawn is the camando pawn.)

*******************
BrainKing Chess:

The King is replaced by a BrainKing. After the 10th move, the BrainKing can move on top of one of it's own pawns and promote it to any other piece! That promoted piece then sits next to the board and can be placed into play the next turn (like Loop Chess). After the BrainKing "upgrades" one of it's own pawns, it can AGAIN promote another pawn after another 10 moves.

*******************
Bully Pawn Chess:

All pawns are replaced with Bully Pawns! The thing this pawns can do is they can actually "push" back another pawn a space. So take for example you have a pawn at A5, and the other person has a pawn at A6. Your pawn can "push" the A6 pawn back to A7 - letting your pawn take over the A6 spot.

Other rules: If another piece is behing the pawn, it can not be pushed (since the space is already taken). The Bully Pawn can not push any other piece - just other Bully Pawns of the opposite color.

OK, those are some of my ideas! :-)

invented end of the 19th century by Ben R Foster
appears as an appropriate pendant to janus chess ...
more infos here - onto that here for a 9x9 variation ...

contains also infos on 4 Player Traditional Chess and, The Emperor Game ... ~*~

seems to be an easy to implement game as well ...

more informations here ... ~*~

Years ago, I belonged to a correspondence club which tried out many different ideas for CVs. One of the better ones we discovered and played was "MAGNETIC CHESS". The rules are:
* * * * *
The object is to CAPTURE the enemy King. (The concept of 'check' does not exist here in the legal sense.) A move (whether capturing or not) by any unit other than a King generates an imaginary magnetic impulse ("magnetism") along horizontal and vertical axes of the landing square that repels friendly units (except the King) to the farthest open square on that axis and draws in opposing units (except the King) to an adjacent square. For example, White could open 1.c4, pulling Black's pawn to c5, 1.c4(c7c5). Black could then move the Queen to a5, creating two magnetic effects, 1. ... Qa5(a2a4,c5h5). (Note that the black pawn at a7 is unaffected because it is already next to Ra8.) In this way, each move involves the rearrangement of anywhere from one to five units, but magnetism extends only as far as open spaces allow.

Kings are not affected by magnetism, nor can magnetism affect any unit in a line beyond either King. King moves do not create magnetism, but during castling a Rook move does.

No en passant capturing, as it really does not make sense in this game concept. Friendly pawns may be repelled to the first or eighth rank. Pawns on the first or second rank may always make a two-step move, even if previously moved. A friendly Pawn on an unobstructed file propelled to the eighth rank is immediately promoted; this is most effectively accomplished by moving a Queen or Rook behind the Pawn (so that the new piece is defended).
* * * * *
If you favor this idea and would like to play it, write to Fencer and/or post here. It would be a while before he could get it on the site, but the more requests he receives, the sooner it will happen.

There are many interested variations and everyone has his preference,but if we propose some for BK they should be interesting for numerous people and not so far from regular chess.Otherwise perhaps we don`t find players.
One variation with uncomplex rules:
Cylinder Chess, that means that the right and the left ranks are connected.Could be interested to test in the practical game!

I think that Makruk would be a good addition to BrainKing, but I suspect that implementing handicaps and the special rules for checkmating a bare king within a requisite numbers of moves will prove difficult.

As to Chinese Chess, it is a very good game, but maybe Korean Chess (Janggi) would be preferable? It is similar to the Chinese game, but I think that it is a more satisfying game.

Shogi (and some of its worthwhile variants like Tori Shogi) would obviously be great games to add to BrainKing.

Maybe the large version of Mongolian chess called Hiashatar would be welcome? The way that the bodyguard can stride across the board with near invulnerability and its curious effect of diminishing piece power by its zone of influence certainly appealed to me. The remainder of the pieces in this game move as in orthochess.

YOU CAN!

Just click here!

         See you at the Games!
             ~ MS

Very good Magenta spiral, but I don`t like the black fields! Perhaps you can change it to brown or blue?

I appreciate your critique Caissus. I chose Black mainly because it so reminds me of a regular Chess board. However, I might change it in the near future anyway. Personally, I find the Notation a big hassle, but I also know that could all be taken care of if somebody made a zrf file (which Whisperz is trying very hard to do) or a 'Java' version of the game somewhere. I tried a game in 'solitaire' mode yesterday, it works quite well. Lucky there is such a cool site that gives the 'little guys' a chance! Viva La CV!

              ~ MS

To see the game's new looks or to try out a game,
simply click this link.

If you have any questions about the rules or how to's, don't hesitate to post about it!

             ~ MS

Nice,Magenta Spiral and if you now change the pieces to the alfaerie pieceset, all is complete.
If there is an Zillions-file available can you please inform us?

Awww, I like the Magnetic Pieceset!

As for the Zillions file...Whisperz (my Co-Exec) is currently working on it. But as you may know, it is extremely difficult to make a zrf. So, unless someone else wants to volunteer, we'll have to wait for Whisperz.

             ~ MS

Sorry ... very busy and when I said I would do it I didn't realise I needed to ZRF101 first. Patience is a virtue so you will need to be very virtuous :)

ChessVariants.com is currently holding a poll to see which Game Courier Games will be chosen for entry in this tournament.

To vote for your favourite games, Click Here

Voting Ends December 31st.

              ~ MS

On the beginning year 2004 "Grand Chess" has the first place in the poll,followed by "Shogi","Ultima" and "Ant-King Chess"

Not too long ago i came up with (as far as I know) a new chess variant. If anyone could comment upon it (why it doesn't work, improvements, problems, etc) it would be appreciated.

It has the same set-up and rules as regular chess, except each player has a row of 8 checkers in front of his or her pawns. The checkers move and capture like ordinary checkers except there are no forced captures (including jumps) and there are no double jumps (well, there could be but it would be very difficult to find check if a triple jump captured the king ;-) )

The only possible problem i found was it can get kind of crowded, but i don't think that has to be a bad thing.

If the board is too crowded with the 16 (8 each) checkers - either have only 4 checkers per side - or possible a slightly longer board.

if there were 4 per side, where would they be placed?

Where to place them.. I don't know! :-)

It would probable have to be something to actually play with - maybe place the 4 in the middle (C, D, E, F), or possible place 2 on each side (A, B, G, H). Probable need to get a board out and play around to see what works best.

May be checkers should start in reserve. On your move you can either make a move on the board, or place a checker from reserve anywhere on the board.

I found this interesting site: Экзотические шашки (Exotic checkers). It is in russian language, but there are enough diagramms. Beside other checkers variants, it contains three chess+checkers variants.

The complete special rules of the "Internetchessclub" (ICC).
Perhaps are there some interesting variants for "Brainking".

How about atomic chess in which instead of all adjacent pieces being "blown up", all pieces that would be a legal move for the capturing piece from where it captured would be blown up. So if a knight captured a piece, any piece of either colour (pawns excluded) that was a legal knight move away from the captured piece would be blown up.

Problems? Suggestions?

Interesting idea - but very hard since a bishop, rook, and Queen would "blow up" whole lines, which would make it very hard to protect a king - games probable would not last too long, but I would have to think about it some more.

I think it would be too destructive on an 8x8 board so there could be little strategy or tactics. Maybe same pieces on a larger board?

For a variant to be successful I think it needs to be simple with likely consequences able to be thought out at least a few moves ahead. The explosive nature of this would preclude tactics beyond perhaps 2 or 3 moves.

Queens, rooks and bishops would only "blow up" the lines to the first piece on that line - since they can't jump over pieces on a regular move, neither would the explosions. Therefore, only 8 pieces (plus captured and capturing) could possibly be blown up by one move, which is no more than currently possible.

The pieces in the "path" or line be blown up - only the first piece - and if it's a pawn, well then too bad because pawns can't be blown up. Hum... interesting - might work.

is if you play Loopchess in a team with two persons against two others.
Here is a Info-page about this variant: Bughouse
Livegames are possible at Fics, ICC, USCL, Chess.net.But it is most difficult to find four players at the same time.:)
Has anybody played this interesting team variant in the past?

I am becoming intrigued with the potential of Grand Chess, despite the comments of some of my peers that endgames become quite difficult with the space involved.

Is the possibility of Grand Chess being offered here getting closer?

Alice Chess, anyone? I have read about it at British Chess Variants Society, and the work of David Pritchard. It can be accessed at ChessVariants to see about it. Ed Friedlander has a simple PixelPusher program where you can practice it, if the mood strikes.

It plays as standard chess, but two boards are used, and when you make a move on one board, the activated piece moves to the other board.

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".It has some new pieces and looks complicated but also interesting.
All who are interested can read the rules and download a small application to test the game here !

Tournament designers---check into Chess and ChessVariants Clearinghouse to get info to chess players of all tags.

I think my brain would explode trying to keep a track of what pieces were being attacked and how ... gothic and janus chess are hard enough for me ... but you are right, it does look interesting.

:) Whisperz,that`s why this variation is not very prevalent until yet. But I can say after some time you can become familiar also with these new pieces..
Btw I have the real pieceset of this game and you can see some pics on my page Caissus Chess

I've played bughouse on several ocassions. It's quite fun but normally reaches a situation in which one player is about to be mated, that player then stops moving and hopes that their partner can win before their own flag falls. I've always played at five minutes and never on the internet.

In our chessclub it was played sometimes as "tandem".Perhaps it could be interesting additionally to have such a teamvariant here in Brainking.

Play a computer here at this link.. Thanks to programmer Ed Friedlander.

These chess-applets are not a good reference, Nasmichael.If you want to play against computer you can use much better "Zillions of games".There is a zrf-data file available.You can also play at the mailserver at "chessvariants.com" against other people.

Caissus: So where did you get the pieces?

WhisperzQ,I have bought this chessset at Erwin Ortlauf (the inventor),it was the last one.:).At this time he has looked for a company,which wants produce the chesset and the board in series. But I don`t know if he has found one.