Anyone into chess with obstacles? I got a new idea today. Please welcome - the Maze chess. The game is played on 20 x 20 board. Rules are the same as in regular chess, however, in order to get to the enemy's camp the pieces have to get through the maze (between ranks 6 & 15). Pieces in the 1st row are the same as in classic chess, however, pawns are replaced by guards (non-royal kings), that can optionally promote to a queen, rook, bishop, or knight. The promotion ranks are 6 for black and 15 for white. If a king takes the starting position of the enemy king, that is a victory. Now about the maze structure. Left side is desighned specifically for dark square bishop, the right side for the light square one. Rooks and knights can pass in the middle, queen and guards can pass just anywhere.
Invent your own chess variant.
Very interesting... You seem to be the most creative out of all of us, lol. I was wondering: Are these obstacles permanent? Or can they eventually be removed?
As for my variation, I propose a game like chess that is functionally identical but has an extra feature: Mines. What if chess were combined with minesweeper to create the ultimate game of both chance and strategy?? Obviously, your pieces wouldn't already be sitting on any mines at the beginning of the game, but everywhere else (save for the 4 central squares) contains randomly placed and randomly spaced mines whose locations you have no idea of. If one of your pieces steps on a mine, they're immediately captured. If your king steps on a mine, then your king is captured and the game's over. I know it sounds like a stupid idea, but I think it could potentially be kinda fun : P
Very interesting... You seem to be the most creative out of all of us, lol. I was wondering: Are these obstacles permanent? Or can they eventually be removed?
No, in this app they are not removable.
Diamond chess. Instead of usual square, the board now has a diamond shape. The marked squares are promotion squares both for white and for black. In the front row there are regular pawns on the left, berolina pawns on the right and sergeant (hybrid) in the middle. Regular pawns promote to a bishop, berolina - to rooks, and sergeant to a queen. If one of the kings occupies the central square, that side wins.
WHAT ABOUT BUGHOUSE+3CHECK! IT WOULD BE INSANE.
if that works, i can also add crazyhouse+3check
That depends on the level of abstraction one uses to characterize the prototype. The standard interpretation is that 'chess' is the family of board games that is characterized by having many pieces of different types, each type moving according to its own fixed pattern on a regularly tiled board, being able to 'capture' opponent pieces by replacement, where capturing a piece of a certain 'royal' type ends the game and decides the result. 3-check, king of the hill and suicide are dubious in this respect, as these are not decided by capture of the royal. But because chess is defined as a family rather than a class, they still qualify, as they are clearly related to orthodox Chess (which fits the definition to a much higher degree) by using the same board, pieces and movement rules.
A somewhat less liberal definition could also require that it is game in which players (perhaps only two?) have complete information on the game state, and take turns to move a single piece. That would exclude 'variants' like Dark Chess / Fog of War, Marseillais Chess, Turnless Chess, 4-Player Chess. Except that some of those might still qualify by the family argument, if their other rules are very similar to those of a prominent member. That would be a reason to include Fog of War, but exclude Stratego.
So there is a lot of variation possible within the family without violating any of the defining traits. Consequently there are many variants, some of with have only little in common.
4 player chess on infinite plane! May have fairy pieces. Also there may be absorption or atomic captures.
Or they’re chess cynosures.
I did not know that word (and I am skeptical that even many native English speakers would), but the dictionary says cynosure means something like "center of attention or guidance". It seems to me you can only have one of those, so that proper use of the term would be that orthodox Chess (or more accurately, the original form Shatranj) is the one and only cynosure. On which the other variants are then modelled.
Slow chess. The rules are the same, and the board is the same, but there are no long range pieces. Bishops are replaced by ferzes, rooks by wazirs, and queen by a guard. Pawns can promote to a guard, knight, ferz and wazir, and have no double step move. Bonus - the starting position of the opposite king is a win square.
Megaclassic. The setup is the same as in classic chess, only everything is doubled. On the king's left is a guard (non-royal king). The game maybe with regular pawns or torpedoes. In case of regular pawns the promotion squares are on the 9th rank for each player. In case of torpedoes the promotion squares are on the last rank. Pawns or torpedoes may be promoted to fairy pieces by agreement. There may also be the hill winning option as in KOTH.
Jumping chess: all the pieces in the back rank are jumping pieces: bishops are replaced by archbishops, rooks by chancellors, knights by centaurs, queen by amazon and king by pasha (guard + alibaba). Pawns are replaced by torpedoes and can be promoted to anything except pasha on the last rank. The goal is to either checkmate or capture the pasha.
The shooting chess: the lineup is the same as in regular chess, only all the pawns and pieces capture by shooting and not by replacement: king shoots 1 square in any direction, pawn shoots 1 square diagonally left or right, bishop shoots diagonally any number of squares, knight shoots where the regular knight would have moved, etc. Pawns can promote to anything except for the king. The goal is to checkmate the king.
Weak Dual chess: two kings, win by defeating both. ONce a king is checkmated, they are gone from the board.
Otherwise same rules apply, except:
- Pawns can promote to king, adding more kings to defeat.
- castling works both ways, but in order to castle with both, you must so short castling.
Here is something I came up with: I shall name it Rapid Pawn chess.
All rules are the same except we add legal moves. These moves have the form "sacrifice N of your pawns (anywhere) & advance one other pawn N+1 steps vertically forward". It can only go vertical (no forward-forward-capture). It can't move through other pieces. And you can't "waste" pawns; you're only allowed to sac N pawns if you can, in fact, move a pawn N+1 steps forward. Also, all pawn moves by 2+ squares are subject to being captured en passant. You're not a passed pawn unless you are, in fact, a passed pawn.
I haven't yet seen how to easily break this variant. Passed pawns would be a much bigger deal, but not impossible to deal with (you can still block them or just watch that queening square). Pawns obviously become better relative to pieces. Maybe sacrificing a minor piece for 2 pawns becomes too strong, but I'm not convinced.
I have an idea of a variation in which nothing stops pawns; they just keep marching forward and, if something's in their way, they just push it forward and hop forward one square. If that thing is at the very end of the board, then the pawn can still just bulldoze it and promote. But everything else pretty much stays the same. Pawns still capture diagonally and can be captured, but they just can't be blocked. I call it Bulldozer Chess.
And here's another improved (?) version of chess on infinite plane. Most things are the same as in the existing infinite plane, only instead of hawks surrounded by extra pawns there are 2 archbishops, a grasshopper, and an amazon. Pawns can move forward and backwards, and they can be promoted to a grasshopper or an amazon. Also, if a king gets on the starting position of the opponent king, that's a win.