Gipf Chess

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Avatar of ichabod801

This is a variant I've been tinkering with for a while, so I thought I'd post it here. It's inspired by the Gipf project series of games.

You start with a standard game of chess, called the main game. Each player has three tokens: a can, a coin, and some animal figure. Each token can be used to make a special move. You declare the use of the token, and the move you want to make. Using the can allows you to make a move as if the board wrapped around and the h-file was adjacent to the a-file. Using the coin allows you to take one of your captured pieces and place it down on any empty square as your move. Using the animal figure allows you to move anyone piece as if it was a knight. The tokens can only be used once, and are lost as soon as the move is declared.

After you declare the use of the token and the move, your opponent can challenge the move. To resolve the challenge you play another game called the challenge game. If the can token was used, you play a game of cyllindrical chess. If the coin token was used, you play a game of crazy house. If the animal token was used, you play a game of Seirawan chess. If the challenger wins the challenge game, play returns to the game the challenge was made in, and the mover must make another move (they can try to use a different token on the other move if they wish). If the challenger loses the challenge game, play returns to the game the challenge was made in and the move is made as declared.

During the challenge game, players still have their other tokens, and can use them as in the main game. So a player in the main game could use the animal token and get challenged. Then during the challenge game of Seirawan chess either player could use the can token and get challenged. A game of cyllindrical chess would then be played to resolve the outcome of the move of the Seirawan chess game, and then the Seirawan chess game would be finished to determine the outcome of the move in the main game.

The winner of the main game wins the game.

And of course, the prefered way to play this would be Fischer Random Gipf Chess, where the main game and all challenge games use Fischer Random set up and castling rules.

Avatar of SkpVwls

Sounds cool. I'm going to have to go learn cylindrical chess before I can try this one though. Laughing

Oh wow, I just found out there's such thing as a circular chess variant. This one seems to be fitting for the coin challenge game.

Avatar of oinquarki

 I'm sorry but I don't think I will be able to create and keep track of so many games.Frown

 

Just out of curiousity, could you use the animal token to move a pawn like a knight and them promote it?

Avatar of ichabod801
oinquarki wrote:

 I'm sorry but I don't think I will be able to create and keep track of so many games.

 

Just out of curiousity, could you use the animal token to move a pawn like a knight and them promote it?


Well, I said any piece can move like a knight. I pawn is not technically a piece. That would need to be clarified.

Avatar of preachingforjesus
ichabod801 wrote:

Well, I said any piece can move like a knight. I pawn is not technically a piece. That would need to be clarified.


 "When used in a rules context, a "piece" means any thing on the chess board."

-- Official Rules of Chess, USCF, Rule 3d.

I'm chiming in here because I think this Idea would be pretty cool with out the sub-games.

Avatar of ichabod801

Okay, it could work without the challenges. We could call it "Token Chess" then. I limited it to three to limit the number of challenge games, so we could even add some tokens if we wanted. I'd think adding too many would get silly, but maybe one or two more would work?

I don't know. It's been a long day and I can't think of any good ones off the top of my head. Maybe in the morning.

Avatar of oinquarki

Without the challenge games we could play it here.

Also an idea for a token might be one that makes your opponent take back his/her move and play another one, like in Pass Chess.

Also #2: Could you use the animal token or can token like this:

Avatar of ichabod801

Let's say that having the animal token (I'm going to start calling it the hawk token) allows any piece to cause check with a knight's move, with the reasoning that it could use that token to capture the king on it's next turn. Then you get this situation:

 

 

 

 

 

 

In that case you have two pieces effectively using the animal token at the same time. The bishop to cause check, and the rook to block an escape square and cause mate. So I would add a caveat that it can't be used to say a given move causes check (although it can still be used to make a move that causes check normally) or to capture the king.

Avatar of preachingforjesus

I'd say the rule needs to be:

a token's power applies to a specific piece (not the whole board) until the end of the opponent's next move.  I does not have to be the piece that was just moved or about to be moved.  the empowered piece can not capture the opposing king.

Avatar of ichabod801

I like preaching's suggestion. I would go with five tokens:

  • can: can move as in cylindrical chess
  • coin: can bring a piece back on the board as in crazy house
  • coyote: can move a piece as a knight
  • ghost: can move through friendly pieces
  • rock: can pass and not move (two rocks in a row is a draw)
Avatar of oinquarki

I don't think that two rocks in a row should be a draw. And do the tokens apply to pawns as well, even though sometimes they aren't considered pieces?

Avatar of ichabod801

All tokens apply to pawns. And if two rocks in a row have no other effect, you can cancel my rock by playing yours immediately after mine. I was also thinking of go, where you can pass, but two passes in a row ends the game.

Avatar of oinquarki

Can two tokens be used in one turn? And can a token be used to deliver mate?

Avatar of ichabod801

I was thinking one token per turn, and a token could be used for mate (within the restrictions Preaching gave: the token applies to one piece until the end of the opponent's next turn).

Avatar of oinquarki

Ok. That's what I thought, I just wanted to be sure so that there would be no arguments in case something like that happened in a game.

Avatar of preachingforjesus

We could call this variant Token chess. I was also thinking tokens could be designated by letters for notation purposes ( e.g.: +A@Nf6 Nf6xb2 ). here is my suggestion for a list of tokens ( I happen to like the idea of 8 tokens)

A: piece on board moves as bishop

B: piece on board moves as rook

C: piece on board moves as knight

D: piece on board can move through friendly piece

E: piece on board can move around the edge of board (as in cylindrical chess)

F: piece in hand can be placed on the board (as in bughouse)

G: piece in hand can be used to upgrade a piece on the board (as in upgrade )

H: player can pass and not move

If an upgrade token is used pawn promotion need defining. I would be in favor of pawns can promote to hawk or elephant but not amazon.

Avatar of oinquarki
preachingforjesus wrote:

We could call this variant Token chess. I was also thinking tokens could be designated by letters for notation purposes ( e.g.: +A@Nf6 Nf6xb2 ). here is my suggestion for a list of tokens ( I happen to like the idea of 8 tokens)

A: piece on board moves as bishop

B: piece on board moves as rook

C: piece on board moves as knight

D: piece on board can move through friendly piece

E: piece on board can move around the edge of board (as in cylindrical chess)

F: piece in hand can be placed on the board (as in bughouse)

G: piece in hand can be used to upgrade a piece on the board (as in upgrade )

H: player can pass and not move

If an upgrade token is used pawn promotion need defining. I would be in favor of pawns can promote to hawk or elephant but not amazon.


 Brilliant!!

Avatar of ichabod801

While I like the nod at my game (upgrade), I note that without the upgrade token the game could be played in with standard diagrams, with less effort on Oinquarki's part. How about instead:

G: the player may make two moves. (check may only be given on the second move)

Avatar of preachingforjesus

sounds good to me

Avatar of oinquarki

Thank you for your concern, but I think it's a better game this way and I don't mind at all. But if you're going to use a standard diagram or normal chess set, it should be fairly easy to remember where the upgraded pieces are since there can only be two of them.