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Benedict Chess

Benedict Chess

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BENEDICT CHESS

  

  

Benedict Chess is a chess variant where there is no capturing of the enemy pieces, but instead, at the end of your turn, any enemy pieces that your moving piece is attacking  are flipped to your color.

These pieces then become part of your team and can be controlled by you.

All the pieces are cowards in this varinant and can be easily manipulated to betray the enemy...even the King himself.

The game was invented by William Daniel Troyka.

 

You can win the game by flipping the enemy King.

There is neither check nor checkmate.

Benedict fool mate (on move 2)

When a piece moves and threatens an opponent's piece (as if it could capture it in regular chess), the threatened piece changes to your color. This new piece, now on your side, can be used immediately on your next turn. However, it won’t be able to change the color of any other pieces until you move it again on a later turn. 

 

 

e7 pawn is not a threat - no checks

 

Only the last moved piece can cause a threat and can flip the enemy piece.

If a piece uncovers a threat by moving out of the way, it doesn’t cause the enemy piece to change color.

Also, one piece changing color won't cause a chain reaction where other pieces change color. Only the piece you move can make an enemy piece switch sides.

For example, this is how the Black response would look like after the White's move:

King is not attacked because the last moved piece doesn't see the King

 

When a pawn is promoted to Queen, it immediately acts like a moved piece. This means that any enemy pieces the new Queen threatens will change to your side right away. 


 

White wins - Last move had a direct impact and flipped the Black King into a White King

Castling Rules:

  • The king and rook must not have moved before.
  • The rook must not have changed color. If it has, you can’t castle.
  • Castling is allowed even if the King moves through a position where it would normally be in check in regular chess (since there’s no concept of check in this game). 

 

Games are usually quick, often lasting 10 moves or less. Most wins come from directly threatening the King, but sometimes you can take control by flipping most of your opponent’s pieces first and then target the King.

The Queen and the Knight are the most powerful attacking pieces. Bringing out the Queen early usually gives a strong advantage. Without capturing, a defender’s King might hide behind other pieces, making it hard to attack. In these cases, a Horsey is often effective.

In this example Black resigns because mate with the Queen is unstopable:

 

The power of Knight in closed positions

  

This is taken from a game of some strong Benedict Chess players.

Full game - Rotech (1655) vs Ingemar Assarsjo (1664):

https://www.schemingmind.com/game.aspx?game_id=77744&ply=16

 

Another key tactic is flipping the opponent’s Pawns on their starting squares. This can create promotion threats or block the opponent's pieces. The Pawns on d2 and d7 are super important. Flipping them can trap the Queen or isolate opponent's King in the long run. And again, we see the Horse power in this next example...

In this example, Black resigns because 1 of the Pawns will promote to a Queen:

 

King is trapped and will be flipped the next move

 

Full game - Rotech (1655) vs Mekk (1271):

https://www.schemingmind.com/game.aspx?game_id=77906&ply=13

 

Benedict Stalemate example:

https://www.schemingmind.com/game.aspx?game_id=35276&ply=20

 

 

How to play:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=desIFioNT20

 

Youtube playlist:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLb7WWzCIItbl-zPRh9SApTnqD5_IfPHiA