The Magical World of Fairy Chess Fairy Chess, n., a board game which is similar to traditional chess, which is known among Fairy Chess players as Orthodox Chess. Fairy Chess is also called "variant chess" and sometimes "fantasy chess." Fairy Chess may be played as a game with a beginning, a middle, and an end, or it may consist of exotic chess problems not found in the usual form of the game. Fairy Chess may feature special rules of play, but it obviously must make use of most of the rules of normative chess -or else it would not be "chess" in any meaningful sense. Fairy Chess may involve an altogether new kind of board, for example 12 X 12 squares, or a unique board with hexagons instead of squares, or multiple boards, and so forth. Rules of play may be changed, and there may be additional kinds of pieces used, or many additional pieces, or fewer kinds of pieces than in the standard version of the game. When a new type of piece is used in the game, for example a Chameleon or a Paladin, these may be referred to as "fairy pieces." There are an estimated 40,000 Fairy Chess variants of the game of chess and the possibilities for new versions are infinite. Fairy Chess, alternate meaning: Any chess set which features chess pieces that resemble fairies, pixies, trolls, gremlins, etc. -------------------------------------------------------------------- Fairy Chess Pieces Most of this information derived from Piececlopedia. These are selected examples only; there are many more, including national variants known in China and Japan and other countries. Berolina Pawn A Pawn that captures straight ahead, moves forward diagonally. Chameleon A piece that becomes another kind of piece after each move. Chancellor aka Empress Combines the powers of a Rook and a Knight. Dragon aka Dragoon Combines the abilities of a Knight and a Pawn Griffon Moves one space diagonally then moves like a Rook; historic. Joker Moves like last piece moved by the opponent. Locust A piece that captures by hopping over its enemy, as in Checkers. Maharaja aka Amazon Combines the powers of a Queen and a Knight Nightrider Can make two jumps like a Knight, in the same direction. Orphan Moves like any piece that attacks it Princess aka Archbishop or Paladin Moves like a Bishop or a Knight Scorpion King that can move like a Knight Sergeant A combination of the Berolina and regular Pawns. Squire A Pawn that moves and captures like a King Wizard Moves 1 diagonal square -or- jumps opponent, capturing in the process. There are other pieces that are more complicated, including: The Blue Queen, or Mad Queen, who moves like a normal Queen, but is blue or some other color than either side's pieces in a game. She is placed in the center of the board and may be moved by the player whose turn it is as if she was one of his pieces. A number of variations on this theme are possible, such as requiring the sacrifice of a Pawn in order to use the Blue Queen, or moving a Pawn backward in retreat as part of a player's move; -or using one's move to position the Blue Queen as an obstacle who does not capture any pieces but who cannot be captured. Champion This is a piece that plays exactly like a Knight, or Nightrider, except that during one move in any game, and only one move, it can make two consecutive Knight moves as part of that one move. An Immobilizer does not capture other pieces but has the function of freezing any opponents's piece next to it exactly where it is. It moves like a Queen. To be able to free up an incapacitated piece, the opponent must relocate his or her Immobilizer, or it must be captured. As a suggestion, to keep with the classical-sounding nomenclature of the game of chess, perhaps an Immobilizer might be called a Basilisk, after a Fairy Chess piece that is similar in some respects but seldom made use of. Invented by Robert Abbott The Immobilizer can never move to an occupied square and cannot capture pieces. If two Immobilizers are moved next to each other, both are frozen until the game is over or one is captured. An immobilised piece is allowed to "commit suicide," that is, self-destruct. This might be useful if an opponent has made use of an Immobilzer to protect a major piece or a strategic position. Self-destruction counts as a move. A Hopper is any piece that moves by jumping over another piece, that other piece called a "hurdle." Depending on what kind of Hopper it is, capture of an enemy piece may be similar to a Pawn capture or Knight capture, or require a 2-step move of some other kind. A Royal Piece is one which a player must not permit to be captured. If a Royal Piece cannot avoid being captured the game is over; this is called checkmate. In standard chess each side has just one Royal Piece, the King. In Fairy Chess any other piece can also be designated as royal, for example a Queen or Princess. Or several additional pieces, such as an Archbishop or a Hierophant. Hence, the game takes on an added dimension. Or, if a Royal Piece who is not the King is captured, a rule may be used whereby the player who did the capturing is allowed to exchange the Royal Piece for some combination of Pawns, Knights, Bishops, etc, equal in value to the Royal Piece -which must then be unable to make any move for a number of turns agreed upon before the start of play. A Kraken is a piece that can be placed on any unoccupied space on the board as one's move. Because it has this great power various rules can be used to limit its capability. For example, it may simply be an obstacle which the enemy cannot capture and can only be moved by the player who placed it there. In that case, a player might bargain with his or her opponent and, for example, offer to return a captured Knight in exchange for removal of the Kraken. Or a Kraken might only be allowed to stay on its square for a limited number of moves, maybe a maximum of 4 or 5; in that case an opponent would only want to use a Kraken sparingly since, in effect, after a few a few turns a move would be lost. A Missionary, which might alternatively be called an Alchemist, is a piece that moves like a Bishop although with no power to capture. Instead, when this piece is placed next to an opponent's piece, that piece "changes sides." A white Pawn, for example, would be replaced with a black Pawn. A Priestess, aka Florence Nightingale, moves on the game board either like a King or a Bishop. A player only can have one such piece but she is given a free move every other turn. She may not be captured and does not capture. What she does is "restore to health" any piece that she can reach during a move. For example, if a Knight is captured, presumably killed in battle, and the Priestess arrives when it is her turn, the Knight is returned to his original position on the board "in good health," ready to fight another battle. If the Knight's original position is occupied, he is placed outside the board but returns when a player frees up that square. My own invention. Emperor, a King that can move like a Queen but no more than 3 squares in any direction. An Emperor has the option of capturing or immobilizing an opponent's piece. An Emperor may retreat off the game board and be temporarily immune from capture for a maximum of 3 turns, at which time he must return to the board on the square from which he exited; this option can only be used once in a game. My own invention. Hierophant, similar to a Rook but with the option of jumping over one enemy piece during a move instead of capturing. Hence the Hierophant may move several spaces and jump over a Pawn or other piece during a move in order to threaten an enemy piece the next turn. The Hierophant, upon jumping over a piece, is immune from capture for one turn. There may only be one such piece for each side. My own invention but based on a previous game piece idea. Fairy Chess Game Options : Absorption Chess In this variant, a capturing piece gains the movement abilities of the piece it captures, For instance, a Bishop that captures a Rook becomes a Rook. But a piece cannot become Royal. Accelerated Chess Each player has a choice, make two non-capturing moves or one move that results in a capture, each turn. Alice Chess aka Looking Glass Chess, is played with two chess sets and two boards. The pieces are set up normally on each board except that, for the second board, the arrangement is mirror image. After each move a mirror image move is made on the other board. To win, this reverse image problem must be solved since the two games are one game. Based on the game of this name but with my own modifications. Behemoth Chess This makes use of a piece like an Orc (a monster) that is positioned according to rules each player agrees to. Prior to each player's move two dice are rolled, each of a different color. An even number for the total and the Orc will move in the direction of White, an odd number in the direction of Black. Then the die with the lowest face-up number is used to move the Orc that number of squares. If the white die has the lowest number the move will be made as a Rook moves, if the lowest die number is for the blue die, the move will be diagonal. All pieces in the way are obliterated and removed from the board. If the Behemoth (Orc) leaves at the top of the board, it emerges on the bottom as if these squares were connected. Existing game but my own dice variant. Byzantine Chess My nomenclature for an unnamed game described by Jonathan Vos Post. This has 4 players and uses 5 game boards. Each player sets up his or her pieces as in standard chess. The boards are arranged in a Greek Cross pattern, with an empty game board in the middle. Moves are made counterclockwise among players, one move at a time. Eventually one player will be defeated and drops out; the game allows the player who put the first loser in check to add that person's pieces that still are "alive" to the victorious "army." And so forth. Needless to say, 4 different color chess pieces must be used. As play progresses, one variant allows players to form coalitions. As an option, each player may be allowed to arrange his or her pieces in any pattern desired at the start of the game. Capablanca Chess, invented by the late world champion and played on an 8 X 10 or a 10 X 10 board, with a Chancellor and an Archbishop, Cheshire Cat Chess After each move, the square vacated "disappears" from the chessboard. Pieces may not occupy disappeared squares, but are allowed to pass through them. Invented by V. R. Parton. Displacement Chess Some pieces for the initial set-up are positioned as desired by each player but the rules are exactly the same as standard chess. Earthquake Chess, a variant in which, at certain times, the board will be turned 90 degrees. Thus Pawns that suddenly are positioned on the last row are promoted, and so forth. Genesis Chess This game begins with an empty board and opponents take turns placing their pieces as they see fit. Horde chess aka Dunsany's chess -one side has standard chess pieces while the other side has 32 pawns. _Kriegspiel_ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kriegspiel_(chess)) - neither player knows the location of an opponent's pieces but a referee provides neutral information that can be used to deduce where those pieces are. Maximum Carnage Chess Just like regular chess except you start out with the pawns on the back row and the major pieces in the front row. Mimikri - Germany. Pieces are cubes printed on only one face. You can play in such a way that either you can only see the identities of your pieces, or only those of your opponent's pieces. Nuclear Chess For your turn you can move or nuke; to nuke, roll two eight-sided dice, and whatever is at those coordinates is destroyed. Partner Chess. A game for 4 players that uses two sets and boards. Play is in pairs. One person is white and one person is black on each team. When you take an enemy piece on your board then you give it to your partner and he or she is allowed to put that piece on their board instead of making a move. Limitations: You may not place Pawns on the 1st, 7th or 8th ranks as white, or 8th, 2nd and 1st for black. And no pieces can be positioned such that the enemy king is placed in check _Penultima_ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penultima) A chess variant in which novel Fairy Pieces are invented for each game or each series of games, for example, each year. Refusal chess aka Rejection chess In this variant a played move can be refused by one's opponent. When this happens, the move-making player must make a new move, which cannot be refused. When only one possible legal move can be made this rule is suspended. Stationary King Both players' Kings must stay in exactly the same position where they started in the game.. Synchronous chess Players try to outguess each other, recording their moves in secret on a sheet of paper, then, when time for this is up, the paper is placed on the table so that each move to be made is documented. Incompatible moves, as when each player places a piece on the same square and neither can capture the other, must be replayed -or, as an option, when this happens both pieces are removed from the board. Viennese Chess In this variant, a barrier or screen is set up between the two halves of the chess board. Players then may place their standard chess pieces where desired on their half of the board and the barrier is removed. ------------------------------------ This only provides an introduction to the subject; the variety of kinds of Fairy Chess games there are is limited only by the imagination of chess players who seek creative new approaches to the game they love and cherish. A variety of sites discuss the game -some of the 40,000 known games- such as Chess.com, and there also are commercial sites that make money from people's interests in this form of chess. A prime example is: _abstractstrategygames.blogspot.com/2010/10/fairy-chess.html_ (http://abstractstrategygames.blogspot.com/2010/10/fairy-chess.html) This can also be found by looking under the title: "Fairy Chess, the Mother of All Battles - la diagonale du fou" What this is, is an unplayable "art game" which uses a 15 X 15 board with an initial start position of four ranks of pieces for each side, all of the regular chess pieces plus several fairy chess pieces. These deluxe games are in high demand and look very attractive. There also are people for whom chess is a form of philosophy, or at least it sometimes raises philosophical questions for them. Patrick & Teresa Nielsen Hayden, for instance, posted a thought-provoking statement by Jim Macdonald apropos of Fairy Chess: "Writing a novel is like playing a game of chess." You can't really say that of conventional chess, but you definitely can say so with respect to some versions of Fairy Chess. Then there is a question asked at the site, straightdope.com. "You wake up one day, and the chess board is now 10x10. What Fairy Chess piece just got a promotion into standard chess?" There could be several, of course. Some Fairy Chess games exist in obscurity, such as Apocalypse, Machine Gun Chess, Kamikaze Chess, and Schrödinger's Chess, Then there are variants we all wish did not exist, such as Beirut Chess, in which one piece has a suicide vest that the other player cannot see. At some carefully selected time, this piece blows up and "kills" all the pieces in the vicinity. There also are metagame hybrid forms of Fairy Chess. In one variant there are three games going on at once, Chess, Monopoly, and Poker. In this alternative game, as described on one site: "players...make deals" that do not respect "game boundaries. For instance, "I'll sell you a Free Landing on Boardwalk and fold this hand if you don't take my bishop this turn." This opens up all kinds of possibilities for the future. Still, that approach might be too complicated for 99.999% of game players, and, besides, it could end up wasting a lot of time for no real advantage. Unless, of course, that kind of game was combined with virtual reality make-believe simulations where real people pay real money to become dukes or exchequers or duchesses or viziers or majordomos of fictional countries. In conclusion, this might be a good time to promote my own version of the game of chess; this was created in 1983 and documented at the time. Behold, not long afterward, Bobby Fischer invented something similar which he called Shuffle Chess. Still, perhaps you may agree that my creation, called "Napoleon," has much to commend it. The rules for Napoleon ; these are fairly simple: Each player has 100 points to spend, the usual values apply, 1 point for a Pawn, 5 points for a Rook, etc, and players can haggle about whether they think a Knight is worth 3 points or 3-1/2 points. Only one King is used. Otherwise a player can choose any combination of pieces desired with one restriction, there must be a minimum of 32 Pawns. Choice of game pieces is "open;" each player sees what the other is choosing. Except for the final expenditure of 10 points. Before start of play several sets of chess pieces should be made available. Until such time as adequate testing tells us that there is an optimal design for a new kind of game board, two standard chess boards are used, set up side by side. A screen is placed between the players at the center of the field of battle, so that neither player can see how the other is positioning his (or her) pieces. While this screen is in place, each player selects pieces representing the final 10 points of value. The screen is removed and play commences. An alternative version of the game can be played using four game boards that include natural obstacles. One suggested form these might take would be 2 strips that are 3 squares across in a row, colored gray or green, to represent low hills on the terrain, one strip that is 4 squares across also symbolizing hills, and one strip that is 5 squares across, colored blue, to represent a water obstacle like a lake. These would be positioned before the start of play in full view of each participant. The strips would be secured with a (non-permanent) adhesive so that they would stay in place during the game. No pieces could traverse these obstacles. --- All of this was conceived before I had ever heard of Fairy Chess, which only has come about literally days ago, in early July of 2013. Hence, with new knowledge of Fairy Chess Pieces, it is possible to conceive a variant of Napoleon, called: Romans vs. Parthians Rules are the same as those for Napoleon except for a requirement to use 4 chess boards, and an expenditure of 150 points rather than 100, with a minimum of 50 Pawns to start the game, and... Additional Fairy Chess Pieces: Squire, (Pawn that moves like a King), 4 points Dragon, re-christened as a Centurion (Pawn + Knight), 6 points Princess, considered as a member of a royal harem (Bishop + Knight), 7 points Empress, (Rook + Knight), 8 points -Royal Piece Emperor, as described, to replace the King, -Royal Piece, no points calculated There may be several Queens in the game, wives in a harem. The objective is to simulate the wars between Romans and Persians in the era of large scale horse warfare. So much else is possible..... Billy Rojas July 2013 -- -- Centroids: The Center of the Radical Centrist Community <[email protected]> Google Group: http://groups.google.com/group/RadicalCentrism Radical Centrism website and blog: http://RadicalCentrism.org --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Centroids: The Center of the Radical Centrist Community" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
