Vivarta Chess

Game review from 2021. Restoring justice.

'Vivarta' translated from Sanskrit means change, change of state, modification, some transition from one form to another. All this perfectly describes the entire chess variant as a whole: the events taking place on the game board, and all those processes in the players’ heads when they are completely focused on the game, trying to analyze the position, in search of the best continuation.

I started developing this variant of chess back in 2018. Of course, then it didn’t have that name, and, for the most part, I used the whole idea of ​​​​transformations of pieces to compose fairy chess compositions, but not for a full-fledged game.

The final rules of Vivarta Chess were developed by 2020 and literally a year later, in 2021, I published them for the first time here on this web site. The variant aroused keen interest among chess variation enthusiasts.

Several correspondence games were played using local community forums and, moreover, I even had to create a club called “Vivarta Chess”, where examples and problems from the games were published, and where you could also find a partner for playing by correspondence.

However, soon some of the chess variation 'experts' tried to accuse me of plagiarism. They claimed that they had already seen something like this somewhere, but they couldn't remember where or what. 

I won’t say that such an accusation hit me and this chess variant very hard, but the aftertaste remained. The accusation of plagiarism and the feeling that everything had already been invented before you forced me to remove almost all materials on Vivarta Chess from this web site and claim publicly that this project is closed.

By that time, my article with the rules of Vivarta Chess was on chessvariants.com, awaiting moderation and publication. There it will be destined to lie in confirmation mode for another two whole years, before experts from chess variants admit that Vivarta Chess is not plagiarism, but a full-fledged and original game. But that will happen later...

In the meantime, I decided to dig through all the known variations of chess and find something similar in order to personally verify what I am accused of. It took quite a long time, but I finally found it.

Gryphon Chess by V.R. Parton from 1961 or the so-called “complicacious chess”, where a piece, at the end of a move, was transformed into a piece of the same color, but of a different value, following the chain of transformations: Pawn > Knight > Bishop > Rook > Queen > King. During the game, chess players were not allowed to have more than four knights, four bishops, four rooks and two queens on the board at the same time. Thus, if, for example, you had four knights, then when you moved your pawn, it no longer turned into a knight, but still remained a pawn.

Since the queen always turned into a king, a player could have up to 15 kings of his color on the board at the same time. The game ended with a checkmate for at least one of them.
After reading the rules of Gryphon Chess, I breathed a sigh of relief and regretted that I had removed so much necessary and useful information about Vivarta Chess from chess.com

Vivarta Chess
Rules of the game
Setup and pieces

The initial arrangement fully corresponds to the initial arrangement of Standard Chess.

The pieces move and capture according to the rules of Standard Chess.

Vivarta Chess fully obeys all the laws and rules of FIDE Standard Chess, strictly following all the goals and objectives of the game, the conditions of winning and drawing, checkmating and stalemate, repeating a position and the 50-move rule prescribed by the International Chess Federation. The exceptions are the following:

1. There is no promotion for pawns on the last rank, no en passant, no castling.

2. A piece, after completing its move, turns into another piece of the same color, according to the following chain of transformations:

- Pawn turns into Knight
- Knight turns into Bishop
- Bishop turns into Rook
- Rook turns into Queen
- Queen turns into Pawn with the exception of the first and eighth ranks, where Queen always remains Queen
- King always remains King

As in Standard Chess, Algebraic Notation is used to record the moves of the game, but with the addition of a capital letter of the transformed piece at the end of each move. So, for example, in the initial setup, a move with a king's pawn two squares forward will be written as follows: 1. e2-e4N - after making a move, the pawn turns into a knight, which is reflected in the move record.

As we can see, the rules of Vivarta Chess are quite simple and easy to understand for chess players of different levels. This chess variant is in no way connected with Gryphon Chess and the only thing that makes it similar to Parton’s brainchild is the general idea of ​​transformation of pieces, which, however, differs significantly.

For Parton, the chain of transformations is final - Queen mutates into King, which completes the entire evolutionary process of the piece. In Vivarta Chess, Queen turns into Pawn, starting a new cycle of rebirth for that piece.

The FIDE Standard Chess rules are not applicable to Gryphon Chess due to the possibility of as many as 15 additional kings appearing on the game board. In Vivarta Chess, each side always has one king from the beginning to the end of the game.

The tactics and strategy of these games are completely different. I don’t have enough time or energy to compare two completely different games in this regard. Since this article is intended to describe Vivarta Chess, let’s move directly to examples and problems of this chess variant.

White to move and mate in 2

1. Rf1Q+ Kxf1 2. Bd1R#

White to move and mate in 3

One of the very first problems, compiled back in 2019 and published on Facebook in 2021.
1. Kf7 Kh6 (1. ...Kh8 2. Bh4R#) 2. Ba5R Kh7 3. Rh5Q#

White to move and mate in 3

1. Bhg5R+ Kh4 2. Rg3Q+ Kh5 3. Bg5R#

White to move and mate in 4

White's first move here is not difficult to find, but Black's unexpected defensive resource may confuse you.
1. Kc7 Ng3B+ 2. Rxg3Q a3N 3. Qg1+ Ka8 4. Qb7P#

White to move and mate in 6

1. Nc4B+ b5N (1. ...Kb7 2. Rh1Q+ Ka7 3. Ba2R+ Kb8 4. Kd7+ Kc7 5. Qd8#) 2. Ba2R+ Na3B 3. Rxa3Q+ Kb7 4. Ra6Q+ Kc7 5. Qc1+ Kb8 6. Kf7#

Now let's look at a game I played by correspondence with one of the very strong players not only in Standard Chess, but also in various variants of chess. The author plays White.

1. h3N a6N 2. a3N h6N 3. Ra2Q Rh7Q 4. Rh2Q Ra7Q 5. d3N d6N 6. b3N b6N 7. e3N e6N 8. g3N g6N 9. f4N c5N

The players are clearly in no hurry, preferring calm development of pieces to exchanges. Almost all the players' pawns have become knights, and White decides to capture first:

10. Ndxc5B Naxc5B 11. Nxc5B Nxc5B 12. Bb5R Nxb5B 13. Nxb5B+ N8d7B 14. Qxa7P Bxb5R

After such stormy exchanges, White's weakness on their left flank becomes obvious. We need to somehow rectify the situation.

15. c3N Ra5Q 16. Qxd8+ Kxd8 17. Bd2R+ Bd7R

You can forget about the a7 pawn - it is turned off from the game and it cannot do anything else except transform into a knight. In Vivarta Chess there is no promotion of pawns on the last row, because all moves of the pieces are one continuous promotion.

16. Rxd7Q+ Nxd7B 17. Nd2B Be7R 18. Nge4B Rxe4Q 19. Nxg6B Qa1+

White's position becomes simply critical despite the fact that they have plenty of hidden potential in the available material on the board.

20. Kf2 Qxe3P+ 21. Bxe3R fgN 22. Ng5B+ N8e7B

White has one piece down and is in a position of complete despair.

23. Nf3B Ne5B 24. Bxh6R Bf5R! 

Great move! Black pins the white king, regardless of the loss of material.

25. Rxh7Q Bxh2R+ 26. Qxh2P Bh4R

White has one more piece, but there is no escape from checkmate.

27. Ke2 Bxe3R+ 28. Kxe3 Qc1+ 29. Ke2 

Black to move and mate in 3:

29. ...Rxf3Q+ 30. Kxf3 Qf1+ 31. Kg3 (31. Ke3 Rf4Q#) Rh3Q#

Black won.

Chess is like meditation. Looking at the position and trying to analyze all possible scenarios, we break away from reality, moving our consciousness into a completely different dimension, where space and time are subject to completely different laws - the laws of a board logic game. As a result of such contemplation, we certainly achieve a certain insight, we begin to perceive the reality around us as it is, and not as we would like it to be. And this applies, of course, not only to chess.

Vivarta Chess on chessvariants: https://www.chessvariants.com/rules/vivarta-chess

Play Vivarta Chess live and correspondence on evochess: https://www.evochess.com