Formula One Chess: Troll Your Opponents In Racing Kings
Don't know how to play Racing Kings? Check out Chess.com's very detailed guide here.
Hello and welcome to the Weekly Checkmate!
Today I will be giving you a solid repertoire for Black and White, in Racing Kings.
Running to Win
Racing Kings is a game where neither player can step into, nor give, check. Players have to get their Kings on the 8th rank of the chess board. You might think that Black would already win because his King's starting position is on e8, but that is not true because this is the Racing Kings starting position:
And now, the opening repertoire! As White, the engine gives the best move as Bd4, but I disagree and I want you to play Kh3. First, it is a good starting move, getting you king one step closer to winning. There are also no pawns in this game, so you can't block your opponent's pieces from blocking your king, at least not with pawns.
Example Game No. 1
Here is a game played by one of my friends (who was playing White)
So that's the White repertoire. So what to do as Black (especially since your opponent will probably play Kh3)?
Never fear, because I also have a Black repertoire.
Here, after Kh3, play Ka3:
and Black is in a better and more active position.
Material doesn't matter as much in Racing Kings, but when I say this please don't sacrifice your Queen! High-value pieces like the Queen actually do matter.
And that concludes another blog in the Variants series! If you want to check out the series, visit those blogs here:
There will be more coming on the way on every Tuesday, so make sure to check often! I will cover strategies and openings for all chess variants, including XXL, Duck Chess, and Setup Chess, and others featured on Chess.com, but I will also be doing strategies and openings for variants featured on the chess variants website on pychess.org (a website dedicated to chess variants, and a sister site of lichess.org) such as Xiangqi (which has its own website at https://www.xiangqi.com/), Mayan Chess and Shogi.
NOTE: I do not promote any of the above content/websites. I am just discussing strategies for chess variants.
Thank you for reading! Hope you enjoy, and good luck in all future games.
hb64
