If you could change one rule of chess,what would it be?

For example you could eliminate en passant, eliminate touch move from slow games, make pawns only go one square on the first move, etc.

Try not to alter the rules of the pieces themselves like a knight can actually go in a zigzag or something

If oy had a buzzer so you could give your opponent electrical shocks, but only 3 shocks pr game. It would be a world of strategic possibilities, for instance: Do you give him the 3 shocks right at the beginning to mess him up good, or save them for the endgame?

Heads I win, Tails you lose!

Raspberry_Yoghurt wrote:

If oy had a buzzer so you could give your opponent electrical shocks, but only 3 shocks pr game. It would be a world of strategic possibilities, for instance: Do you give him the 3 shocks right at the beginning to mess him up good, or save them for the endgame?

You could do it when your opponent is about to make a bad move so you can trick them into thinking that you shocked the because you didn't want them to play that move.

when i'm running under 1 minute, I get an extra 30

ErnstStavroBlofeld1 wrote:

when i'm running under 1 minute, I get an extra 30

That sounds fair

Stalemate should be a win for the person forcing it, as it in in checkers, as well as every other endeavor in the animal kingdom. 

I would forbid one's queen to mate the other king.

I would add a resign rule to the draw rule. When in a lost game by position, material and against a stronger player they must resign. Penalty should be double the result of the lost in rank pts.

OpiningTheoretician wrote:

I would forbid one's queen to mate the other king.

That would make it pretty hard.

I've always wonereded about removing the pawns' two space jump. It would slow down gameplay but, after getting used to it, the game could be just as fun without it, I believe. Not certain how this rule came about anyways.

Yes, it would become an impenetrable game for humans.

Make the knights move like the Queen only they cannot capture, they can only be used to block!

Another good change would be to allow forward passes and maybe field goals too. Say maybe we could also allow 3 pointers but only from behind pawn chains. -Owen Lee Hughman

I would introduce rules so that less games are drawn, for example draws are worth less than half a point. Draws with stalemate give more points to the player who is winning.

More ideas are welcome

The rules should be changed as such that every game I play is a win for me.

   What is wrong with leaving chess exactly where it is?

No prob. But whiners have to be kept care of.

I would not want to change the rules of chess itself, per se, but rather the penalities.  USCF is too leanient about many rule violations.  Here are some things that need to change:

• A complete, no exception, zero-tolerance policy.  If ANYTHING of yours makes noise (Cell Phone, Pager, or any other electronic device that is not of medical necessity - meaning things like pace-makers are excused), you forfeit, no ifs, ands, or buts.  None of this "10 minutes or half the time" bullsh*t.
• Allow capture the King - It's your job to pay attention and get out of check.
• No eating at the table.  You try facing someone eating kettle-cooked chips while you are thinking about your move - happened to me in 2011.
• Only the native language of the country hosting the event can be spoken.  You go to say, the Chicago Open, in May in the United States, and you get two foreigners talking to each other in French, Spanish, Turkish, Japanese, etc.  How are you supposed to know one isn't saying to the other, after English Translation, "If he moves his King to f7, just sacrifice the Knight with Ne5+"?
• A bracelet must be worn by all players, which will go off if you leave the boundries of the permitted area, meaning the tournament hall and a restroom.  Locations like the Skittles Room, Restaurant or Bar, a different floor in the hotel (like where you hotel room is), etc, would cause the director to receive notification that bracelet number #### has crossed the boundries and that player forfeits the game.

It's all anti-cheating and anti-distraction changes, not changes to the rules of the game of chess itself except capture the king permission.

I agree with all of the above.  There are various ways to implement the bracelet idea although I think it's a bit unreasonable to expect *every* USCF tournament to enforce this.  Maybe any tournament with 100 players or more (all sections combined).

I also think there should be at least one TD in the playing area (or each in the case of multiple rooms) at all times, to give SOME hope of providing a non-biased witness to head off any disputes that might be generated as a result of these new penalties.  Too often you have 3-4 TDs all hanging out in an isolated room during a round that need to be fetched, which provides opportunites for information to be forgotten, evidence destroyed, etc.