Chess Variations - Various Derivitives of Traditional Chess
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Learn to Play Chess Differently
Many people know the usual rules to the game of chess, yet these variations on the rules of chess provide some interesting twists. Some of these make for fast and easy games very suitable for beginners, others make the game almost fiendishly difficult!
Here we'll look at each of the common chess variants and explain the rules of these games.
Here we'll look at each of the common chess variants and explain the rules of these games.
Page Contents
Feel free to drop me a line or 2, using the comments module below, if you wish to comment on the games listed here or add to them!
- Suicide Chess
- Cylinder or Circular Chess
- Speed Chess
- Coin or Penny Chess
- Dice Chess
- Random or Shuffle Chess
- Fischer Random Chess Links
- Tandem or Twin Chess, aka Bughouse
- Crazyhouse Chess
- Nuclear Chess
- Queens Battle
- Detail of the En Passant Chess Rule
- Please feel free to leave me a comment or 2!
- Do You Know This Game?
- Chess Variants Links
- Quality Italian Chess Boards, Chess Sets & Accessories
A Brief History of Chess
Modern or 'Orthodox' Chess has only been around in it's current from for just over 100 years, having developed over the preceding centuries, we'll just briefly touch on the history before exploring current variants of the rules.Chess is thought to have originated in India, in about the 6th century and was known as chaturanga, which translated means "four divisions of the military", infantry, cavalry, elephants and chariots, represented respectively by pawn, knight, bishop and rook. In Persia around 600CE the name given was shatranj and rules were further developed. Shatranj was a popular game adopted up by the Muslim world after the Islamic conquest of Persia, with the pieces largely retaining their Persian names.
The Knights Templar where introduced to the game during the crusades and this allowed the spread of the game across the remainder of Christian Europe.
There is a theory that chess actually originated from a chinese game xiangqi, known to exist in China about in the 2nd Century BCE. And this was the game which developed into the indian game of chaturanga.
Between the 11th and 15th Century, the modern rules took shape through developments in southern europe, particularly Spain & Italy. The only rules left to finalise were the ones regarding Stalemate, which were adopted in the 19th century.
Suicide Chess
This variant is another often lightning quick game. The main rules being the same as normal chess, with the variant being if you can take a piece from your opponent you must. The winner being the first player to have all their pieces taken.This game can appear to be very fun and fast, but be warned it only takes the slightest blunder to give the game away entirely, as once a powerful piece is drawn into a trap the game can quickly be over. For this reason players familiar with opening moves can be at a distinct advantage.
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Cylinder or Circular Chess
This is played and set up pretty much as normal. The main rule change here is that you have to consider the board as cylindrical and that pieces can disappear off one edge of the board and appear on the other.
Speed Chess
Speed chess isn't really a variant from the rules, it's just normal chess played very quickly against the clock.
Speed Chess Game
Two top grandmasters, Maxim Dlugy and Hikaru Nakamura, battle it out in a 1-minute blitz game after the U.S. Championship. IM Ben Finegold comments on the side.
Runtime: 1:08
622768 views
10 Comments:
Coin or Penny Chess
You'll need 1 chess board & 1 penny
This one is a real brain stretcher for even the most experienced of chess players!The game is set up as normal, with the addition of a penny being placed on the board in either d4 or e4 (for those unfamiliar with the code for chess pieces this is the two center squares just over the half-way line between white & black)
The movement of all pieces is now restricted as a piece can only move if the coin can copy the exact move legally. For example, if the rook moves 3 spaces to the right, the coin has to be able to move 3 spaces to the right too.
Check does not matter in this game, as the ability to capture the king is the decider, which often can not be completed if the coin can't make the appropriate move.
This game can last for hours, and it is possible that there will be moves where a player can not move their piece, if this also results in both players being unable to move, the last move must be reversed.
Dice Chess
Requires 1 Chess Board, Chess Pieces & 1 Dice
The aim of the game is no different to the usual aim of capturing the oppositions king. All normal rules are valid, with the exception that it is no longer required to move out of a check or to avoid moving into a check.Each chess piece is assoiciated to a number on the dice. For example - one for the pawn, two for the knight, three for the bishop, four for the rook, five for the queen and finally six for the king.
The dice is rolled in turns and the number thrown indicates the piece the player can move, for example throwing a 1 allows the movement of a pawn, a 6 the movement of the king.
If the player isn't able to move that particular piece, because they are no longer in possession of it or because the piece is blocked in, they have to skip or wait a turn. The one who first manages to capture the other one's king wins the game.
Dice Chess is ideal for those wanting a fast game as by throwing a dice the choice of what piece to move is made for you. It is also quite a good way of leveling the playing field between a novice and experienced player due to the random nature of play.
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Random or Shuffle Chess
Another entry to medium level variant.The pawns are set up as normal, though the order of the pieces on the back row is chosen almost randomly, though there are some restrictions on what are legal placements. The method of set up is open to choice, from picking the pieces randomly out of a bag, each player taking turns, and having black mirror white. Conventionally when setting up bishops must be on differing colours and the king must be between the rooks.
This game was further developed by world champion Bobby Fischer and is called Fischer Random Chess, the rules on randomizing the back row are somewhat more developed and usually involve a computer providing a random set up, or throwing dice and consulting a table.
Both shuffle and Fishcer Random Chess can be quite a bizarre way to play chess, but what they both do is level the playing field when playing against a person who has a number of set openings perfected and plays a good opening game. This turns what was a game of memory, into a game of skill.
Fischer Random Chess Links
These links will provide the reader with further details about Fischer Random Chess
- The birth of Fischer Random Chess
- Extensive piece on the Beginning of Fischer Random Chess
- Fischer Random Chess: Manual Procedure for Generating Piece Placements
- Tables required for setting up Fischer Random Chess without aid of a computer program.
- More Detailed Rules of Fischer Random Chess
- Includes all tables for calculations of castling
Tandem or Twin Chess, aka Bughouse
Requires 2 chess boards & 4 players
Tandem Chess is a team game played by 2 teams of two on two separate boards. Each team being the opposite colour on each board. Each game starts independently of the other, following the usual rules of chess, until a piece is captured. The capturing player then passes this piece to their teammate who uses it as one of their own on the other board. It can be placed anywhere on the board, with the exception that pawns cannot be placed on the first or last row, and this counts as the player's normal move.The team who first manages to decide a game at one board wins. This is a great way of playing amongst groups and turns chess into a team sport.
In more competitive matches access to chess clocks is essential for the game to flow, though it is often claimed to become more of a battle of time & stalling than skill.
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Crazyhouse Chess
This is a quick and fairly simple game to play. The rules and set up being as normal with the twist happening on a piece being captured. Once captured that piece can then be placed anywhere back in the field of play as a legal move. Placement does not have to be immediate and pieces can be 'stockpiled', though only one piece can be added per move, the addition of the piece being the entire move.Placement can put the king in check, or checkmate, but placement cannot be made on an opponents piece as though to take it.
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Nuclear Chess
Also Known As Atomic Chess
Atomic or Nuclear Chess is for those who want a quick game, most games will be completed before 20 moves.The rules are the same as normal chess with the exception of when a piece is taken. What happens then is the taking piece can be considered as delivering a nuclear payload destroying the piece being taken, the taking piece as well as any piece in the adjoining 8 squares. This does lead to very fast game play with the number of pieces on the board being reduced rapidly until the king is attacked directly or is a victim of a neighboring 'explosion'.
nb I have been kindly contacted by the 'inventor' of Nuclear Chess to clarify an additional rule I had not realised existed, though some may see it as optional - "the (explosion) square also is a "Dead Square" in that it's no longer a part of the board. Pieces cannot move onto or through the dead square."
Chess Boxing
The ultimate test of strength, endurance and intelligence?
Chessboxing on ESPN Sports Center
ESPN recently showed a really cool feature on chessboxing, inlcuding statements by Lennox Lewis (!) about chessboxing. This is a slightly shortend version.
Runtime: 3:37
35992 views
10 Comments:
Queens Battle
Teach Chess Basics to Children
This variation was suggested to me by Fritz of LearnToPlayChessWithFritz.com.It's a really simple method of teaching the moves of each chess piece. It's called Queens Battle as it's simplest and easiest to play with the queen.
The board is set up with queens in opposing corners and a number of pawns scattered randomly around the board. The objective of the game is to capture the most pawns. You are not permitted to take the other players queen.
In this it is probably the most simple chess variant I have come across and therefore ideal for introducing chess to the very young.
You can substitute the queens for other chess pieces to introduce the patterns of movement for other pieces, though the advantage of starting with the queen is that it's range of movement allows for quite fast games.
What's Your Favorite Chess Variant?
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Detail of the En Passant Chess Rule
Often overlooked, the En Passant rule is simply explained in this video
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Please feel free to leave me a comment or 2!
If there are any variants you know of that aren't listed here please do drop me a line and I'll see about including them!
aj2008 wrote...
I am having enough trouble teaching "normal" chess to my children, let alone any variations. However, this is a great resource. 5 checkmates to you!
Posted January 09, 2009
Lensmaster
Fritz wrote
When teaching kids to play chess for the first time I use a mini game variant called Queens Battle. It's great fun they get a chance to jump straight in and play a competitive game whilst learning how the pieces move around the board. You can find the rules on my blog Learn to play chess with Fritz.
Posted December 15, 2008
Lensmaster
Jay wrote
Video of some chess variants at www.chessvariations.com
Posted December 11, 2008
Lensmaster
smeteach wrote
Great site to level a chess club's experience.
Posted October 31, 2008
Do You Know This Game?
A request.....
I'm trying to remember the name of a game and possibly finding one to purchase.
It was based on chess and played on a chess/checker type board.
The pieces were oversized two-tone dice...one side white with black dots and the other player just the opposite. I believe there were 8 pieces plus a king to a side.
The kings had a large single dot with (I believe) 4 smaller dots in a diamond shape around the large dot; on all 6 sides.
Have you ran across this game? I actually have a few of the pieces in my posession...so I know I'm not dreaming!
thanks,
Richard
I have not published RIchards Email address but will forward replies to him directly! If you do have any info on this game please do leave us a note here
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Fetching RSS feed... please stand byChess Variants Links
- Chess Variants by Matt Bengston
- A good list of chess variants, though a little dry.
- Boxers play chess in the ultimate sport
- A new sports club combines boxing with chess in north London.
Vintage & Antique Chess Boards, Set's & Pieces on ebay
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