Mad Alice Chess
Frankly, I hadn’t anticipated this chess variant would generate such enthusiasm on Pychess, even outpacing classic Alice Chess in gameplay volume recently. My sincere thanks to all who embraced its chaos and discovered its unique appeal.
I make no claim to the legacy of the great chess inventor and ask that this variant be viewed simply as another form of Alice Chess—one that further highlights the brilliance of Parton’s original idea in an even more vivid and profound way.
"A Mad Tea Party, or How 'Mad Alice Chess' Was Born"
Somewhere in Looking-Glass Land, on the very day the White Rabbit was late and the Red Queen hadn’t yet screamed, “Off with their heads!”…
V. R. Parton and I sat across from the Mad Hatter, watching as he poured tea into the same cup for the hundredth time—a cup that somehow remained empty.
“Time has stopped,” he muttered. “But the chess game goes on!”
“What chess?” I asked.
“The one proposed by Mr. V. R. Parton. Alice played it, but she found it... boring!”
V. R. Parton frowned but said nothing.
Just then, the March Hare burst into the room, dragging two chessboards behind him.
“Let’s play!” he shouted, dumping multiple sets of chess pieces onto one board.
“Pawns? Who needs pawns? They just get in the way!” I laughed and swept them off the table.
Suddenly, staring at the chaotic pile of pieces, it all clicked...
A Revelation in Looking-Glass Land
What if…
Remove all pawns—no more wasting time on "trivialities," just jump straight into the bloody battle of the pieces!
Expand the army—why two knights when you can have eight? Why two rooks when you can have six? Let there be a sea of bishops, tangling every diagonal!
Keep everything else as V. R. Parton intended—two boards, where pieces vanish and reappear like Alice tumbling down the rabbit hole, along with all the other rules of Alice Chess.
“That’s brilliantly insane!” shrieked the Hatter.
“The Queen adores madness!” added the Hare.
V. R. Parton frowned even harder.
I paused. It was beautiful.
The Moral of the Story
Sometimes, to create something truly new and mad, you must:
1. Have tea with the Mad Hatter.
2. Toss out all the pawns (literally and figuratively).
3. Forget the rules and unleash a mirrored apocalypse on the chessboard.
And that is how "Mad Alice Chess" was born—a game where chaos is beautiful, and you might get checkmated before even realizing where your king went.
Care to play?
I first proposed this starting piece arrangement for standard chess in December 2022.
And now I've discovered that playing with this arrangement in Alice Chess creates absolute madness! The combination of teleporting pieces and an army of 8 bishops, 8 knights, and 6 rooks makes every move feel like falling down the rabbit hole. Traditional strategy collapses entirely—it's like the Red Queen's race, where you must run twice as fast just to stay in one place. The Hatter would approve.
White to move and mate in 1
1. Bc6#
***
White to move and mate in 1
1. Nxe5#
***
White to move and mate in 2
1. Nfd6+ Bxd6 2. Nxd6#
***
And this beauty:
Black to move and mate in 1
It is impossible to achieve such a checkmate in regular Alice Chess. Well, theoretically possible, but not in practice.
Here in Mad Alice Chess, this is a completely common occurrence.
1. ...Rxb6#
Amazing, right?
Wondering where to play this insane chess version online? Fear not—the glorious Pychess website keeps the chess variant universe endlessly entertaining!
And this isn’t some kind of ad—it’s the honest-to-goodness truth!
When creating a challenge, select Alice Chess
and paste the following FEN into the designated field:
rrrqkrrr/bbbbbbbb/nnnnnnnn/8/8/NNNNNNNN/BBBBBBBB/RRRQKRRR w - - 0 1
Play against the bot of any difficulty level or challenge real players!
Enjoy!
I made also a preset to play Mad Alice Chess online by correspondence or to play it using the screen as a shared board on chessvariants.com:
Here is another Mad Alice Chess puzzle from the game on that site:
Black to move and mate in 1
1. ...Bc3-a5#
