/VU/ NCV Countdown

(Every time I try to type things out to submit this, it is always super laggy, and I lost all my progress like about 5 times already, so I’ll post this first, then edit it. I’ll change this after I completed.)

(Draft: 2026-2-25 to 2026-?)

Variants.Universe ID #22

/VU/ | NCV | Countdown

Time Control: 3 | 20D (Rapid)

Game Rules: Teams, Red: 3 checks, Blue: 10 check, Capture the king, Promotes to Chancellor (E), Archbishop (H), General (M), Knight rider (O), Queen (Q), Wildebeest (V), Alibaba rider (Z) (14th rank)

Screenshot:

Games:

1. Game 1 (Opponent won by Red = 0 checks, =Red)
2. Game 2 (Won by Blue = 0 checks , =Red)
3. (After change) Game 3 ( , =)

Description:

- Yellow: F-Pusher Green: F-Muncher

- What is happening outside the 8x8 board?

First, the yellow soldier chases the blue king for 10 turns, so the blue king must keep moving until it arrives b2, the blue king only has 1 check left, but the soldier cannot chase the blue king anymore and it has no more pawn moves, so it will start to move the wazir.

Also, green’s soldiers keep taking dead soldiers for a total of 28 moves, after it has taken all the dead soldiers, green does not have any moves else and must play Wc4, then on the next turn, yellow will check blue’s king and the game ends on the 31st move (Blue immediately loses after red moves).

- The game:

Red has a royal sergeant with only 3 checks (13th rank), and 1 soldier on the 10th and 9th rank, 1 sergeant on the 8th and 7th rank.

Blue has a normal chess set (not a royal king and therefore cannot castle).

Note that there’s also a wall of dead wazirs.

Red has 10 free moves at the start of the game, so red can promote his pawns, or even go and take some of the blue pieces (Note: Do not use the royal to take, blue still wins if he can take the red royal). After the 10 moves, red need to survive 20 turns without getting checked 3 times.

Blue’s goal is to check the red royal 3 times after the 10 turns and before 20 turns run out.

Small Note: Changed a little bit, but doesn’t actually affect the gameplay and nobody played Kc3 after the green sergeant moved.

And after hearing @Rethlit ‘s advices and looking at his games, I decided to give red 2 more checks and give green 5 more moves. This colour means this is changed after his advice.

by @AllenBB314

Status: Declined

The concept, the imbalance is interesting, however, the forced sequence, size of the board making it must be a forced win for some side.
We strongly suggest you expand the board and add more variety.

Good. Luck!

Please add the rest of the testing games when you can

yep, just waiting for people to play good games

-1
This variant is fun to solve... and that's it.
A lot of the positions you end up in are basically forced in how they turn out, to the point where it's painfully formulaic.
It feels like something you would throw a computer at to figure out the optimal move sequence for.
I've played a dozen or so games of this and like it less the longer I play.
Another couple of problems:
- it's pretty complicated looking for what it actually does
- you can't play the side you want
- the opening takes ages to get through
- why is this NCV?
- you can just take your opponent's king if they march it into your position in the opening, which is a draw (preventing red from doing that at all and thus reducing the number of openings even further)
https://www.chess.com/variants/custom/game/97646970/57/1

Look at game 1

lol you can choose to promote to queen and take blue’s pieces quicker

and yes, i should probably make red a bit stronger, but anyways, thanks for the advice!

wdym?

{you can just take your opponent's king if they march it into your position in the opening, which is a draw (preventing red from doing that at all and thus reducing the number of openings even further)}

And I don’t really know if I want to make it a WoF, but I’ll keep it as NCV for now.

-1

The first 10 moves of the game are forced. After them, we reach this position.

[StartFen4 "R-0,0,0,0-1,1,1,1-1,1,1,1-0,0,0,0-0-{'dim':'','wb':false,'noCorners':true,'boxOffset':0,'zombieType':('','','pusher_comfuter','muncher_comfuter'),'zombieImmune':(false,false,true,true),'pawnBaseRank':8,'enPassant':('','','',''),'royal':('m13','a12','',''),'royal8x8':('','','',''),'lives':(1,10,1,1),'setupPoints':(0,0,0,0),'setupComplete':(false,false,false,false),'stalemated':(false,false,false,false),'promotedFrom':{},'resigned':(null,null,true,true),'spells':('','','','')}-x,x,x,x,x,x,bR,bP,2,dW,3/yβ,x,yW,x,x,x,bN,bP,2,dW,1,rδ,1/bK,x,1,x,x,x,bB,bP,2,dW,3/dK,x,x,x,x,x,bQ,bP,2,dW,3/dK,x,x,x,x,x,bK,bP,2,dW,1,rβ,1/dK,x,x,x,x,x,bB,bP,2,dW,1,rβ,1/dK,x,x,x,x,x,bN,bP,2,dW,1,rδ,1/dK,x,x,x,x,x,bR,bP,2,dW,1,rδ,1/dK,x,x,x,x,x,x,x,x,x,x,x,x,x/dK,x,x,x,x,x,x,x,x,x,x,x,x,x/dK,x,1,yγ,x,x,x,x,x,x,x,x,x,x/dK,x,gW,x,x,x,dβ,dβ,dβ,dβ,dβ,dβ,dβ,gβ/x,1,x,x,x,dβ,dβ,dβ,dβ,dβ,dβ,dβ,dβ,gβ/x,x,x,x,x,dβ,dβ,dβ,dβ,dβ,dβ,dβ,dβ,gβ"]
[Variant "Teams"]
[RuleVariants "CaptureTheKing DeadKingWalking EnPassant 1-check PromoteTo=EHMOQVZ Prom=14"]
[CurrentMove "41"]
[TimeControl "5 min"]

1. δm13-n14=Q .. Ka12xKa11 .. βa13-a12+ .. βn3xβm3
2. βm10-m11 .. Ka11xKa10 .. βa12-a11+ .. βn2xβm2
3. βm11-m12 .. Ka10xKa9 .. βa11-a10+ .. βm2xβl2
4. βm12-m13 .. Ka9xKa8 .. βa10-a9+ .. βn1xβm1
5. βm13-m14=Q .. Ka8xKa7 .. βa9-a8+ .. βl2xβk2
6. Qm14xWk12 .. Ka7xKa6 .. βa8-a7+ .. βm1xβl1
7. Qk12xh9 .. Ka6xKa5 .. βa7-a6+ .. βk2xβj2
8. Qh9xKg10 .. Ka5xKa4 .. βa6-a5+ .. βm3xβl3
9. Qg10xQg11 .. Ka4xKa3 .. βa5-a4+ .. βj2xβi2
10. Qg11xBg9 .. Ka3-b2 .. βa4-a3 .. βi2xβh2
11. Qg9xBg12

In the original (red has 1 check) blue wins by playing j7 and then developing the rook. If red has more than 1 check, he wins. Thus, there isn't a way to balance the game.

Why would this be the forced line and other strategies don't work (for example, promote to general, etc.)

1. Other pieces are simply worse than the queen.

This is the line that captures the most mateiral

The point of promoting something other than queen is the ability to capture both of your opponent's rooks + queen

What if I remove the option to promote to queen?

Is that going to be better?

Then O promo is best for red, but i don't think it can win.

I'll test and see

After your change, there is a FWFR

https://www.chess.com/variants/custom/game/97762068/0/1

-1 by me and @MakeEveryonePlayUNO for same reasons (testing game in our archive, was loooooooooooong time ago)

bump (WoF is a better choice, additionally)