The Luck Factor: Could RNG Improve Chess?

Hello everyone!

Today I was thinking about a topic that is both interesting and unique for everyone, and as soon as I thought about 'unique', something came to my mind... I was thinking about including RNG and luck-based factors to increase the engagement and interest in a long 4 hour classic, or at least a rapid!

In this blog, I will explain the top 4 methods of incorporating luck into a strategic game like chess! Whether you are a casual player or a Title holder, this blog will help you look at chess in a whole new perspective. So, without wasting any further time, Let's get started!

#1. The coin-flip method

Most of you have watched cricket at least once in your life! There is always a coin toss at the beginning of every cricket match 🏏, so why not apply a similar concept to chess?

At the start of every game, whether classic or even faster time control, there is a coin toss to decide who will start the game, black or white! This will help to increase the complexity and fun of the game, as we will have to study openings with black as well as for white to defend black's opening! It will lead to the discovery of new openings with Black and will ultimately expand our knowledge and database for future generations!

It will help broaden the scope of chess, making it more interesting to see what preparations top players will make and what the result will be!

Another coin flip idea I would like to share requires Heavy Heart and some gambling skills! Its easier for a lucky person (not me) to win happily. It is called the 'Coin Flip Saga' (named by me)... It involves every move being played with a flip!

Every single move has a flip on who plays it. Imagine if White gets 4 moves in a row in the opening and Black gets no moves on the toss! It will be an instant checkmate! But it is also a risk for white if the toss goes to black! Let me show you how white gets nervous playing with the Wayward Queen attack and how black makes him a crybaby!

There will be more fun strategies to come out of this concept than just the Wayward Queen attack, but at some point everyone gets the urge to play wild a little! Let's hope there aren't any crazy queen attacks like this hah~!

Of course, when the King is in check, the player should get a move regardless of the coin roll, as legal moves are followed throughout the game! But it's very interesting to see players looking at coin toss the whole time, and praying the coin toss in their favour!

Hope we get to see such ideas being implement in tournaments round the world!

#2. Roll the piece!

Why limit yourself to two probabilities of black or white with a coin? Make a dice!

I just thought about making the game more complicated and making a dice 🎲 to roll instead of a coin! Let me first introduce you to a basic framework that I was trying to make!~~~

It is so cool to make it a dice and let the dice decide what you are going to play! Isn't it so interesting to play with a 1/6 probability of each piece. Every roll gives you the chance to play something new.

For the pieces that have no legal moves, you can just reroll and have a chance to play another move, like if you got a rook piece in the opening. Just reroll and get a chance to play a new piece. In case of king in danger/check, the move will be what the player wants to play to defend the king, and the die roll will not be taken!

Even if there is a need to play something new, the reroll option can be removed: if there is no legal move for the piece, the player automatically loses his chance! Another way to play. It will be a very cool 😎 way to play the game~a totally new experience! I made a simulation of how the site will look with this.

It's inspired by a game I used to play in my childhood~ Ludo and Snake & Ladder!

Another type of dice game can be played by using 3 dice, and we can choose the piece we want to move out of three! It will help to avoid anyone missing the chance due to lack of legal move or will also avoid any kind of reroll. If we do so Mathematics here, there will be 6*6*6 = 216 probabilities/chances instead of just 6! 

And to keep the game more warmed up, it can also be played in a different way where a player can play all 3 pieces he plays on dice which can be so interesting! The checkmate thing can be removed and instead have an idea of capturing the King. Imagine getting two queen moves in the roll and capturing opponent King 👑! Zuzuwang!!

And as you know, Asian kids (especially me) really like to complicate things, let's just number the pieces and you can play with a simple dice anywhere in the world: (1 - pawn, 2 - knight, 3 - bishop, 4 - rook, 5 - queen, 6 - king).

It will be a great play and if someone misjudged the numbers or didn't remember it correctly, his move will be taken away! Tell me which of these ideas, you liked the most.

#3. Roll the position!

This is another very cool type of RNG! Here the authority to choose the piece is in your hand, but where the piece will move out of all the legal moves for that piece is decided by the RNG! meaning it can either be a good move, or a heavy blunder because of your stupid idea to play big pieces, or just some brilliance! who knows!

Take this picture as an ideal example! Here, the queen has so many squares to travel, logically 21 squares. So all you have to do is select the queen and the RNG will randomly place it on any square with a 1/21 chance for each square! Similarly, 2 legal moves for pawn, 3 for bishop, 8 for knight, 5 for king and 12 for rook! I prefer bishop or pawn here to avoid the worst situations in real games! Imagine clicking on the queen and if it gets placed next to the enemy pawn~~💀

#4. Spin the Wheel!

A modern idea where we can have 2 wheels (one with letters from A to H and the other from 1 to 8). Both players get a chance to roll both wheels at the same time and the player gets a square notation from it ... e.g. A4 - the person has to move one of his pieces to A4 at any cost!

If there is no piece that can go to that square, the player loses his chance! Also note that there is no checkmate in this game, and the first player to eat all of their opponent's pieces wins! A cool RNG idea for classic or rapid play!

This is how the game works! To avoid illegal moves, players can play the opening of their choice for 7 moves, and when all the pieces are open and scattered, let the wheel spin!

Conclusion

In this blog I have discussed all the ideas that came to my mind! I hope you like them, and I am very eager to play them myself, because if some of these modes can be put into practice, it will revolutionise chess once and for all! I think it can be called Chess 2.O! I hope you enjoyed my blog, and please leave a rating and a comment when you have reached the end.