Grand Dice Chess

Don't be afraid of the 12x12 board and the seemingly strange initial placement of pieces. Here is the result of long experiments and the search for the perfect chess variant with dice. I won't bore you with a long story about why everything looks the way it does. Let me just say that I was partly inspired by Oblong Chess, which was known in the 9th century and was the earliest Chess game played with dice. 

Grand Dice Chess

The Rules

The game uses a 12x12 board.

Each player has:

4 Kings
24 Pawns
8 Knights
8 Bishops
8 Rooks
4 Queens

White and black occupy the 1st-6th and 7th-12th ranks, respectively, as shown in the diagram.
White starts the game first.
The game uses four dice.
Opponents make moves alternately, throwing 4 dice. The piece to move is determined by a die:
1 = pawn, 2 = knight, 3 = bishop, 4 = rook, 5 = queen and 6 = king.

The player makes four moves at the same time based on the indications of the dice and has the right to refuse any move that does not suit him, unless it is a pawn move. Exactly! Unlike in regular dice chess it's allowable to pass moves. And this rule was already applied about a thousand years ago in old variant of Shatranj (Shatranj al-Mustatîla or Oblong Chess), the Arabic pre-decessor of modern chess. However it's not allowed to pass on pawn-moves, except when they are blocked.

Chess pieces move across the board as they do in ordinary chess - according to the standard rules of move and capture.
The only minor exception is for a pawn that is not allowed to move forward two squares from its starting position.
Upon reaching the last rank, the pawn can be promoted to any piece except the king and itself.
There is no castling, check and checkmate in the game.
The goal of the game is to capture four enemy kings.

On February 10, 2022, the First Experimental Grand Dice Chess Tournament will be held at http://abstractgames.ru/index.php 

It will be a correspondence tournament / 3 days per move + 12 hours for each move / 

All against all where you play two games (White and Black) with each of the opponents.

I will be glad to all fans of dice chess who will take part in this tournament. Everything is absolutely free and everyone can take part in the tournament.

Thank you!

The first Grand Dice Chess correspondence tournament has started.

Given the composition of its participants, this tournament can be safely called International.

I want to express my deep gratitude to all those who took part in this event.

To all those who think Grand Dice Chess players are weird, I have this to say:

Many people forget that chess, as we know it now, evolved precisely from chess with dice. We are just returning to the roots, returning to chess the concept of a GAME, not a science, where for every mistake you get an 'F' from 'professors' who love to teach others so much.

Chess in its modern form is a sport of chess engines, there is nothing human left there. Emotions are punished. Improvisation is punishable. Strict logic is a lifeless landscape of the human mind.

At Dice chess and at Grand Dice Chess in particular, we are freelance artists creating unique masterpieces on the chessboard.

Nothing fetters us, we have no chains of stiff theories and memorized schemes. We create with the help of intuition and imagination, guided only by dice, which in essence are generators of random events.

Each game is a work of art and each final position of a dice chess battle is the result of the work of two chess artists.

I will post here interesting positions that occur in my games. I hope this will help those who are interested in Grand Dice Chess to understand this exciting game.

Black was lucky enough to roll 1-1-1-5 (pawn-pawn-pawn-queen) and now they have to decide how to use it.

Whether this was a good idea will be shown by further events.

How can Black play here?

The white Knight burst into the depths of the enemy's territory, having already destroyed two Queens and a King.

Black decides not to capture White's knight for now, since it does not directly pose a threat to the kings. Of course, if White rolls 2-2 on four dice, then another of their Kings will disappear from the board. However, Black follows the well-known principle that the best defense is an attack and play like this:

If Black is lucky and the queen survives on the first rank, then the situation on the board can change dramatically.

On average, a Grand Dice Chess game lasts 20-30 moves.

Positions that arise during the game you will no longer meet in any of the variants of chess.

Black to move 1-3-3-4  / pawn-bishop-bishop-rook

Initially, there was a desire to play twice with the bishop on a3: Bxc1 and Bxe3. 

Leaving White without the last Queen. But the possibility of capturing two Kings at once overcame the original decision.

On the next move, White won the game by rolling 3-3-5-5.

Simply amazing!

Now the game is available on the Dagaz server:

https://games.dtco.ru/map

Simple and easy registration that does not require email or other personal information.
You can play in complete anonymity mode.

Try playing against the AI.

Here is a direct link to the game against the bot. Registration is not required. The bot plays very weakly, but is ideal for understanding the game.

Grand Dice Chess at github.io

To make a pass, it is enough to double-click on the dice that you do not want to play. Remember that you cannot refuse a pawn move.

Yes and 4 dice. 

The most interesting thing is that the game lasts an average of 20-30 moves. It seems surprising, but it is true. The first test games proved it.

As soon as the pawn chain is opened, events develop at lightning speed. One move is a roll of 4 dice or movement of 4 pieces, which you can play in any order.

It is also noteworthy that the balance of wins for white and black fluctuates strictly around 50%.

But this is not surprising, because the dice acts here as a generator of random events.

Good news, guys.

Grand Dice Chess is now available on Play Online Dice Games: http://www.playonlinedicegames.com/

http://www.playonlinedicegames.com/grand-dice-chess

Registration for the game is not required.

Play local or against AI.

It's far better than standard dice chess (board 8, 3 dice). It has a strategic depth that standard dice chess lacks. Plus, the larger number of dice and larger playing area doesn't make the game so dependent on chance. The amount of pawns bothers me a bit. It takes a while (when attacking units) to make a "tunnel" where pieces can attack. Have you tried the game with only one row of pawns ?

Is it possible to implement the game on other online servers (is it free) ?

There are five places where you can play GDC free:

GDC at github.io

GDC at Dagaz Server

GDC at AbstractGames

GDC at playonlinedicegames.com

GDC at ASHSHI

On the sites of AbstractGames and ASHSHI regular correspondence tournaments are held. Players are ranked. Since the launch of GDC (February 2022), more than 300 games have already been played.

I have suggested adding GDС to the line of games to many TB game sites such as Goldtoken, BrainKing and others. Only Goldtoken showed interest, but the process of reflection has been dragging on for more than five months.

About your concern about the number of pawns. I agree that this is the first thing that catches your eye. I can tell you that on average a GDC game lasts no more than 35 moves (a move is a roll of four dice). It looks strange and implausible, but it is a fact. During the game, the rows of pawns quickly thinned out, opening the way for more maneuverable and long-range pieces.

Yes, I experimented with one row of pawns. In this version, the game ended even faster - there was no time to take the kings to a safe place and regroup the pieces in the rear.

Thank you for your interest in the game! I hope you enjoy it.

Hey guys!

Now you can play GDC at GoldToken.com!

https://www.goldtoken.com/games/play?g=0;rules=ChessDiceGrand;show=setup