The 64 - How Variants Can Help Your Chess

Happy Ocho Day! 

     Anyone who has seen the 2004 classic comedy Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story would be privy to the fictional cable channel ESPN 8: The Ocho. It hilariously takes the common sci-fi trope of cloning and how each new iteration is slightly lesser than its original carbon copy. We're accustomed to ESPN airing NFL, NBA, MLB and NHL games, whereas with ESPN 2 (the deuce?) we'll find on the channel guide less popular events such as professional lacrosse. As a result of this, every August 8th (8/8), ESPN takes this premise to its most unique heights by paying homage to the film that used its likeness when it airs "sports" that would usually never see the light of day. Games such as banana ball, paintball, roofball, juggling, big wheel racing, carjitsu (jujitsu but in a car), slippery stairs, dog surfing, tire wrestling, Microsoft Excel World Championships and of course, dodgeball. This year they are even set to air reruns of the 2022 Speed Chess Championship.

     For those who frequent the chess.com Variants page, they are no stranger to the newfound popularity and overall entertainment factor of these distinct chess spin-offs and their different rules. When burnt out on studying reams of opening theory and endgame studies, these joyful alterations can be a welcomed respite from serious study and overall chess fatigue.

     However, these variants have become highly competitive. Chess.com's Community Club frequently run tournaments that attract a many a titled players and essentially function as de facto world championships. Along with that we see The Collegiate Chess League running bughouse and bullet leagues during the summer and Hikaru just wrapped up another chess "decathlon" which almost gives these variants equal weight to that of the immortal game.

     So, with all that in mind and in honor of Ocho Day, I will explore those more obscure chess variants, the ones that would find themselves perfectly at home being broadcast on The Ocho and explain how these variants can actually improve your overall chess.

 1. King of the Hill - Fighting for the Center

     It's prudent to start with King of the Hill (KOTH) because of how it is the variant that is most rooted in chess fundamentals (The classical romantic Tarrasch would have definitely approved of these rules). As a beginner you are always taught to fight for the center and this is even more the case in KOTH since controlling those pivotal four squares (e4, d4, e5, d5) is vital, since getting your king to one of those key squares automatically wins the game. So much so that on the variants page, the center squares are even highlighted to emphasize their importance.

     KOTH feels the most like an actual game of chess a lot of the times, since mating your opponent is also a way you can win. Anyone who has played KOTH I'm sure has played a game that has lasted 40 something moves and actually forgets that they are still playing a variant and ends up failing to protect the center. I sure know I have!

     All in all, you can be getting crushed in a position and down a piece, but as long as that king gets to the center, it's like the equivalent of catching the golden snitch in quidditch, no matter the score, that is game over.

Here's a KOTH puzzle from a game that I won recently. White is down a piece but actually has a forcing sequence that wins. Can you find the winning sequence?

2. Chess960 - Piece Coordination

     The granddaddy of all the chess variants. So much so that many believe (even some top professionals) that chess960 (or what they would want to you to believe is 'New Chess') will one day replace chess 'prime' as the new standard. That's why it is the only variant that has its own FIDE sanctioned OTB World Championship. I for one have never bought into that sentiment but there is no doubting the variant's role and origin in chess history.

     960 (or what was first referred to as Fischer Random) semi-randomizes the back pieces generating new starting positions for every game. This makes it impossible to study, yet alone memorize any sort of opening theory since there are 960 starting positions, hence where the variant received its name. That means no games are prearranged, no blitzing out the first 15 moves in an opening or no starting tabiyas a well booked up competitor can reference upon.

     Since there is no way to predict the initial position, this inhibits any players ability to prepare. Therefore, it is incumbent upon the player to come out of the opening into the middlegame with good ideas and a concrete plan. This is why one must be judicious with putting their pieces on proper squares and having there be an overall harmony within their army. At the end of the day, you have to figure it out over the board, kind of like when opening theory stops and now you have to play an actual game of chess. With 960, that happens on move one. But don't take my word for it, here's what GM Levon "Lebron" Aronian has to say about 960.

Chess960 is healthy and good for your chess. If you get into it and not just move the pieces to achieve known positions, it really improves your chess vision.

- GM Levon Aronian

3. 3 Check - Prophylaxis

     A common chess expression goes "patzer see check, patzer give check." Well in 3 Check that is not such bad a strategy after all. Most would associate this variant with sacrificing material and opening up lines to the enemy king. We all dream about starting off a game of 3 check in this manner --

     But just like Scholar's Mate, it will never be that easy and protecting your king is much more significant than losing material while overextending yourself trying to infiltrate the enemy's camp. On top of that, most attacks/sacrifices in 3 check tend to happen with a wayward piece, going rogue and acting on its own just to give a single check. This will not serve you well in a proper game of chess since you want to bring all your pieces to the party and attack in tandem.

     It's for all these reasons which is why protecting your king and guarding against all checks via prophylactic thinking is the real trick to succeeding at this variant. One must recognize your opponent's attacks, plans and most importantly any checks, and take the time to prevent these ideas from coming to fruition. Unfortunately, if you start off with the Black pieces, you kind of have no choice to adopt this defensive philosophy since playing White in 3 Check comes with the initiative and an immediate +1.8 advantage!

4. Duck Chess - Calculation

     Duck Chess took off a couple of years ago and no, it's not because it's a swiss style tournament of actual ducks playing chess. That would really be something!

     But no, it's a variant of chess where each player gets two moves; One chess move and then one move with the "duck" which blocks the square that it is on. This makes it impossible for a piece to land on that square or to move through it. Certainly, the fact that it is a duck, or a rubber duck if you are playing OTB, helped in having the variant go viral back in 2022. It could have easily been 'block' chess or 'brick' chess but that is simply just not as fun (admittedly I now have rubber duckies to match all my chess sets.) However, the game is not without its merit. 

     Now obviously calculation is a vital component to all forms of chess, and I could put this with any number on the list, but I find that in Duck Chess this is especially true. The duck, where it can interpose and take away certain squares, adds a whole other level of calculation that needs to be accounted for. Being able to unpin your piece or to disrupt a battery is just another step in the process that needs to be calculated further as one must be keen to particular 'quackticks' that simply could not take shape in any other form of chess.

Here's a video of Hikaru finally figuring out the game and watch just how hard he has to work on every move to make sure he's not blundering. 

5 - Crazyhouse/Bughouse - How to Create Attacks

     To trade or not to trade? That is the question? Now in a normal game of chess you ponder this dilemma under the circumstances of whether or not the ensuing change and altering of the position will benefit you. In Crazyhouse, that question is not that simple as the once captured piece can now be dropped back into the game on a vacant square in an omnipotent act of deus ex machina (Bughouse, in an extreme oversimplification is essentially Crazyhouse but played in teams of two-on-two with two separate boards.)

     But what really makes these two variants stand out are how to form attacks with your pieces (both captured and not captured!). Whereas in the 3 Check segment I briefly discussed rogue actors going kamikaze, Crazyhouse/Bughouse underlines the need of bringing all of the pieces to the party and have them line up against the enemy king. Here's a short clip of Eric Rosen doing just that --

     In Bughouse, there is no position to serene to launch an attack. The preconditions to mate aren't necessarily thrown out the window but instead are just accelerated, and there's really no shying away from ushering in an attack by playing positionally. Or as Vuković puts it in his book The Art of Attack --

Mate is the final aim and crowning achievement of the contest, and the mating attack is the ultimate operation in relation to all the rest, which are only contributory. 

- IM Vladimir Vuković

 6 - Setup Chess - Focal Points (Beyond Material)

     The last variant I'll mention in detail is Setup Chess because I think it has a good amount of instructive value. The player gets to arrange their 39 points in material in any manner they wish as long as they are on their first three ranks. The interesting part of this variant is that you get to see where the other player is putting their pieces and then get to adjust your own strategy accordingly (otherwise you'd just have a glorified game of Battleship).

     Usually during the setup phase your foe will not arrange his or her pieces optimally and a clearly defined target begins to materialize. Identifying weak squares and circumventing a game plan around these deficiencies are key to coming up with candidate moves and generating a game plan. Vuković would refer to these as strategic or auxiliary focal points (as opposed to mating focal points). These are points in which you wish to break through into the opposing king's camp and in Setup Chess, you want to arrange as many pieces towards the auxiliary focal point as possible.

Here's an example of a game I played a handful of months ago --

     Black has dubiously put some bishops behind their pawns. That means that these pawns can't be protected with other pawns and have then therefore become auxiliary focal points, basically a faulty portcullis to invade the enemy king. After all material was placed, the starting position looked like this --

     I immediately identified the weakness on g6 and directed as many pieces as possible that I could at that focal point. When the dust settled, the engine scores White with a +3.6 advantage out of the opening.

CONCLUSION

     It goes without saying that there is a plethora of other variants out there which could serve as fodder for a future blog. After all, there just so happens to be another Ocho Day next August =). I've played all of these variants at one point or another and enjoy pretty much most of them. Some are their own singular being, meanwhile, others definitely resemble the game that we know and love (of the ones not already catalogued that I'm particularly partial to are XXL chess and even had a 4-player chess phase for a while). Now I know I'm just a measly 1500, and by no means claim to be an expert on anything chess related, yet alone its variants, so you may agree or disagree with my opinions written throughout. If so, I welcome your opinions in the comments below.

     All in all, whatever the case may be, when you are in-between tournaments, studying books on the classics, memorizing opening theory and chasing norms, do yourself a favor and blow off some steam every once in a while, by letting these variants remind you of just how fun and irreverent chess can be.