Unusual Chess

Changing the rules of chess is actually a fairly common practice. Often it is used to postulate problems, especially in a computer science setting, though when played in a real game, it is used to test the mettle of the players. Changing the rules can change the basis on which strategies are made, and require players to think quickly on their feet. There are hundreds of different types of chess, and no doubt many more can be invented for the pleasure of the players, however, the following rule changes make games that are both practical and clever, and require a chess player with the ability to strategize quickly and effectively.

1. Refusal Chess

In this type of chess, a player is allowed to refuse the opponent’s play. If the play is refused, the opponent then makes another play which the opponent cannot refuse. This requires both strategy in chess and strategy in reading your opponent’s preferences.

2. Benedict Chess

Named after the well-known traitor Benedict Arnold, pieces that are “captured” in this form of chess stay on the board but change colors.

3. Progressive Chess

This type of chess is often played by people playing long-term games, such as chess by mail. Each move is progressively one longer step. For instance, in the beginning of the game, white makes one move, followed by black making two moves, then back to white who makes three, and so forth.

4. Extinction Chess

In this type of chess, the players agree upon a single piece that is to go extinct. The object of the game, and the only way to win, is thus to capture each of that type of piece. If the object is the king, the game changes very little. If the object, however, is pawns, all pawns of one color must be captured by the opposite side for that side to win.

5. PlunderChess

PlunderChess is a type of chess where a piece that captures another piece is allowed to temporarily have the power of the captured piece for one move in the future, though this power can be declined. The official game is a copyrighted game and comes with “vests” for each of the pieces to wear, representing the potential other power the piece can hold. If the piece wearing the “vest” captures another piece, the capturing piece can either divest itself of the original power in favor of the newly captured piece’s power, or keep the older “vest” and forfeit the power of the newly captured piece.

6. Three Checks Chess

This type of chess is won only when one player has placed the other player’s king in check three times. Anatoly Karpov, the legendary chess great, is said to be particularly good at this form of chess.

Randomized Chess Games

To the well-organized player, chess is a game of high strategy and planning. The movements of the pieces are highly controlled, and a clever chess player can be seen to excel almost entirely on skill and control. There are, however, a number of types of chess that look to introduce some type of randomness or unpredictability into the chess game. Sometimes this randomness spurs more and quicker strategy on the part of the chess player, while other times it simply throws a monkey wrench into the workings of the whole game, both amusing and frustrating the players (one assumes they continue to play for the amusement factor). The following types of chess have been randomized in some way and, supposedly, have monkey wrenches of fun thrown in all over the place.

1. Kung-fu Chess

In this type of chess, there are no turns. Players move whenever they want, and pieces are captured by deciding which piece arrived on a single spot second. Though it seems like madness, the website of Shizmoo, the company that invented it, had its servers crash from such high volumes of traffic. This game was rated Game of the Year in 2003 by ArcadePod.

2. Dice Chess

In this type of chess, either a single die or a pair of dice is used to determine potential moves. Usually with this type of chess, each number on the face of the die is assigned to one of the pieces in the game, and only by rolling the corresponding number can a player move a specific piece.

3. Kriegspiel Chess

This type of chess is derived from a war game used to train German military officers in the 1800s, and it’s easy to see why. In this type of chess, the player can only see his or her own pieces. A referee (either another person or a computer) informs a player making a move whether or not that move is legal. If it is legal, the move stands; if not, the player must try a different move. With pawns, the referee also informs the player if a specific pawn may make any captures on that turn.

4. No Stress Chess

This type of chess is mainly used as a training device for beginning players. A deck of cards is used to determine which piece should be moved, thus taking control out of the player’s hands, but still showing a player how individual pieces can move, exemplifying the teaching aspect of this type of game.

5. Knightmare Chess

This type of chess is played with a special deck of cards called “Knightmare” cards that are specifically designed for chess (and are copyrighted). Each card has a set of instructions that changes the rules of the game or the moves a piece in some way.

Chess on the Internet

The rise of the internet has caused widespread sharing of information and trends that had traditionally been centered in certain areas. Chess is no exception. Though chess has maintained a constant popularity worldwide for the last several centuries, the always helpful Google Trends gives as an interesting, and perhaps unexpected, look at the number of chess queries over the past six years or so. One of the most surprising things about these searches is the inclusion or exclusion of certain countries. Russia, for instance, who dominated the chess field for several decades in the twentieth century, isn’t even on the top ten list of countries where “chess” is most commonly searched, while the Russian language is only ninth on the list of languages in which “chess” is most commonly searched, though there is certainly a good representation in the Nordic and Slavic areas. There are a few explanations for this trend however: it is quite possible that the popularity in internet trends reflects more a popularity among a younger generation, excluding popularity among older generations, or that the exclusion of some countries could reflect higher accessibility to chess clubs where chess is played in person, and less accessibility to internet chess resources. Overall, however, Google Trends shows an undeniable drop over the past six years in searches relating to chess, with just a few spikes along the way. The most recent data shows that chess queries are the most unpopular they’ve ever been, for as long as Google Trends has been keeping records. That said, there are clearly a number of countries who are still gaga for chess, and their dominance is chess queries on Google is clearly shown.

1. Philippines

With the fifth highest population of countries in the world, the Philippines only narrowly edged out India for the number one country where the most “chess” searches come from. Additionally, Tagalog, one of the more common languages of the Philippines, is the number one language in which said chess inquiries are entered.

2. India

India has the second highest number of chess related queries of any country, while Delhi, India holds the top place as city with the highest number of chess searches. Because of the wide variety of languages spoken in India, no exclusively Indian language makes the top ten languages in which chess is most commonly searched, though Arabic is a distant eighth.

3. Norway

Norway is the third highest country in terms of the number of chess searches, while Oslo is the second highest city. Norwegian also takes second in languages in which chess queries are most commonly made.

4. United States

While the United States actually comes in ninth in terms of countries from which chess queries come, English is the third most commonly used language to search chess. This could be because of the wide number of English speaking countries (South Africa, Australia, and New Zealand also make the top ten list), but it is important to know that five of the top ten cities from which chess queries most commonly come are in the United States.

Chess Organizations

Chess as a sport is officially organized by FIDE, the French organization entrusted with running worldwide chess. There are, though, a number of chess organizations and sub-organizations that have significant power over the chess world, and have made significant contributions to the sport of chess. The most significant chess organizations in the world today are listed as follows, with their particular attributes and powers.

1. FIDE

FIDE is properly known as Fédération Internationale des Échecs, or by its English name as the World Chess Federation. It is the premiere chess association in the world, and is recognized by the International Olympic Committee as the top chess organization in the world. FIDE keeps the official rules of chess and all of its officially recognized variants, and awards the coveted master titles in chess. It also organizes the World Chess Championship.

2. Professional Chess Association

The Professional Chess Association was an organization founded by International Grandmaster Garry Kasparov after a falling out with FIDE. This organization existed from 1993 to 1996, each year electing its own world champion, and contesting the FIDE champion. The organization eventually lost its sponsor and folded, and was officially reunited with FIDE in 2006, when the two champions of each organization played each other.

3. Grandmaster’s Association

This was a short-lived brainchild of Garry Kasparov, and one that would eventually morph into the Professional Chess Association. It was mostly significant as it represented the initial splintering off from FIDE by Garry Kasparov.

4. Russian Chess Federation

Though the Russian Chess Federation is technically just the Russian arm of FIDE, it deserves recognition. For several decades during the twentieth century, Russians were the dominating force in chess, partially due to the efforts and promotions of the Russian Chess Federation. The Russian Chess Federation also deserves note for accidentally overlooking the qualifications of a Grandmaster tournament and allowing the then unknown and unrated Garry Kasparov to enter and win the competition that would propel him to become the third highest rank player in the world.

5. United States Chess Federation

The United States Chess Federation is the American arm of FIDE, but a substantial force in itself. It keeps its own ratings, and organizes a number of different events around the country. It is the top American chess organization and currently has around 80,000 members, with its peak membership being around 100,000 members in the early part of this decade. Its membership doubled at the height of American Bobby Fischer’s popularity, and then doubled again in the late 1990s as a result of the increase in scholastic chess organizations.

6. Internet Chess Club

The Internet Chess Club (ICC) is the largest paying chess server on the internet, partly because it was the first. It has room for chess discussions of normal chess and all of its variants, and currently has over 30,000 members. It also spawned the Free Internet Chess Server, which is similar to the original website, and was started by some of the ICC’s founding members, but offers all of its servers for free.

7. International Correspondence Chess Federation

This version of the International Correspondence Chess Federation has been around since 1951. This organization allows its members to play correspondence chess, or chess that is played across some distance. Nowadays, most correspondence chess is played via e-mail, making international play far more accessible, though in the past it has been played using regular post, couriers, or even homing pigeons.

Play Chess

Chess is an almost two millennium old game that, to this day, continues to be appreciated and enjoyed by players all around the world, mainly for the highly intellectual nature of its game play. It is both beautifully simple in its easy-to-learn rules, and mind-numbingly difficult in the high amount of strategy and planning it requires. Because of this, chess is enjoyed by people of all ages and all skill levels worldwide. If you are looking to become involved in chess, consider the following reasons as options to persuading you into playing this elegant, wonderful game.

1. Intellectual skill

The main reason that many people take up chess is because of the intellect required to play it. Careful chess playing requires calculations and forethought that force the chess player to develop strategy and problem solving skills of an advanced nature. Furthermore, highly advanced chess players will study strategies and tips that involve careful logical study and, occasionally, advanced mathematical calculations. The logical basis upon which chess is based can be evident in the fact that computers can been programmed to play chess, the most famous of which was the supercomputer Deep Blue, which managed to defeat international grandmaster Garry Kasparov in 1997. Chess is ideal for teaching these logical and mathematical skills. Benjamin Franklin clearly thought this way as well, enumerating foresight, circumspection, caution, and perseverance as the four best qualities taught by the game of chess in his work The Morals of Chess.

2. Focus and discipline

Chess, like any pursued subject, requires a high level of concentration and discipline in order to succeed at play. Engaging in chess can teach the serious student discipline of an advanced nature, most especially because of the infinite room for improvement. Furthermore, because strategy must constantly be considered, no matter whose turn, chess teaches focus.

3. Involvement

Even today where so many opportunities exist to play chess against a machine, many people continue to play chess against another human, whether it be in person, online, or otherwise. This is because the best strategy for improving in chess is to play and learn from an opponent. Studying chess can lead one to become involved in chess clubs and tournaments, and to meet many people in the course of improvement.

4. Easy to learn

Though a highly complex game in play and strategy, the basic game of chess is not terribly difficult to learn. Because of this, many children are taught chess at a young age, in countries around the world, and is one of the few fields in which children do not infrequently claim high titles. This is because chess requires no advanced knowledge unattainable by children: it is entirely based on skill and logic, and becoming an expert at the game is based on the child’s application and intellectual development.

Play Free Chess Online

Though many Windows computers come with a free chess program, and there are plenty of places online in which one can pay to play chess against other people, free chess online is not only a great opportunity to practice chess, it also has some advantages over other types of play. To some people, playing free chess online is no comparison to playing against another person, but given the following advantages, free chess online might just be the medium of choice for many chess players.

1. Practice!

Though you may prefer to play chess against other people in person, playing chess online is a great way to practice whenever you have a little bit of time. Better yet, since you’re not paying for a membership, you’ll never be inhibited from practicing by either lack of money or lack of partner. Free chess offers a great, reliable way of practicing.

2. Saving money

For people who play chess online often, it can be an expensive habit to keep up if played on paying membership websites, especially for people looking to belong to multiple websites for a greater variety of opponents. Playing free chess online saves not only the money of joining a paying website, but also the money that could otherwise be spent paying to enroll and attend some chess tournaments that the player would have entered only for practice.

3. Wider clientele

Because free chess websites have no requirements for members, the kind of people who frequent the websites will be of a wider variety than those of paying membership websites. They will more likely be people of any age than paying websites, and also people from around the world, rather than just those from the country whose currency is calculated on the website.

4. Easier skill level for beginners

Because only people who have a greater interest in chess and are willing to invest the money will subscribe to paying chess websites, playing chess on a free website will likely attract players who do not have much skill or experience in chess, in addition to the more experienced players. Therefore, free chess websites are great for beginners looking to play people nearer to their own skill level.

5. Anytime play against real people

The best thing about free chess websites is how many people are attracted to them. Because of this, for any of these websites at any time there will likely be plenty of people playing. If you’re looking to play against a real person, but it’s an obscure hour or day, the high volume of players that free chess websites attract will allow you to be able to play against a real person at any time that suits your fancy.

Learn Chess

Chess is a relatively simple game to learn, though upon first glance it can be intimidating. Each piece has its own set of possible movements as distinctly different from every other piece, and the interactions between the pieces can be complex. If you are looking to learn chess for the first time, there are a number of different outlets that can teach you, each with its own benefits and detractions.

1. From a teacher

A teacher is the most optimal way to learn chess, mainly because a teacher can give you individually focused lessons and answer specific questions you might have. This teacher can be a formal teacher who is experienced in teaching chess, or it can be a relative or friend simply looking to introduce you to something new. In either case, a teacher can best help you learn to play chess, mainly because he or she will more likely be combining the teaching with actual gameplay, allowing you to get a more intuitive feel for the game, along with practice. If you’re looking to improve your skills, a “teacher” may best be found simply in playing others of a different skill set.

2. From a book

There are certainly hundreds of games that offer all the major rules of chess and strategies in one helpful guide. While not as personal as a teacher, learning from a book has the added benefit of allowing you to review lessons and rules, and to study the theory far more in depth than a single teaching. Also, books frequently have diagrams that will let you see any of hundreds of different configurations for study at any moment. Furthermore, chess books are often written by people notable in the chess world who may infuse their books with anecdotes and special tips that helped them become the chess player they are. The downside of learning chess from a book is that in your learning you will not be practicing, which is essential to playing well.

3. From the internet

The internet has absolutely innumerable sources set up to help teach you chess. It offers lessons and tips for learning chess, resources for playing against others or against computers, and an absolutely infinite stream of websites dedicated to learning every possible aspect of chess. In addition, there are specialized resources for just about everyone’s skill level, and information on the benefits of chess to one’s intellect. Furthermore, learning chess online allows one to consult others about any number of issues and get a worldwide response. Problems can be posed and answered, and other people consulted on strategies and tricks.

4. From videos

There are plenty of DVDs and videos online that teach either the basics of chess or much higher level skills. Besides this, there are hundreds of videos that show actual chess matches for someone looking to get an idea of how they are played. For someone looking to get a feel of the professional chess world and the typical feel of a match, videos can be extremely helpful. Also, some major tips and strategies may only be best explained by a real person using a board (which can be difficult for someone without a teacher who knows the material), or best explained by watching a match in which the strategy is used. Be warned, however, that simply watching strategies may not overtly show the reasoning behind their use, and so solely learning said strategies from these videos may not be optimal.

Alternate Types of Chess

By far, the vast majority of people play “classical” chess; the sort of chess with few to no time restrictions and the board set up in the usual fashion with the rooks on the outside, king and queen in the middle, etc. Unbeknownst to many, however, there are actually many variations of chess set up for people looking for a new or different challenge. If you’re feeling daring, you might try looking into any of the various other types of chess, both for the entertainment and for the strange skills they can teach you. The following setups give a few types of chess that use the same board as “classical chess”; this is a short list, since there are thousands of possible types.

1. Lightning chess

This is the general, informal term for any type of chess played unusually quickly. The most well known type of lightning chess is known as “blitz” where, by the rules, each opponent usually gets 3 to 5 minutes per move. The difficulty here is in working out a developed strategy and executing it in a very short period of time.

2. Fischer random chess

This type of chess was invented by chess great Bobby Fischer. It involves putting the first rank pieces (pieces that are not pawns) in a random order. The eighth rank pieces (opponent’s non-pawn pieces) should mirror the first. The difficulty in this type of chess is that strategies can less easily be memorized, and logic and skill must be more relied upon.

3. Transcendental chess

Transcendental chess is much like Fischer random chess in that the order of the first rank pieces is random. The difference here is that the eighth rank pieces are also randomly placed, in a way totally uncorrelated to the first rank pieces.

4. Displacement chess

This is the blanket name given to any of various games of chess where a small few of the pieces are transposed in order to destabilize a player’s knowledge of opening strategies.

5. Upside-down chess

This type of chess switches the black and white pieces. The only difference in gameplay here is that the pawns move in the original direction; so each row of pawns is only one rank from promotion at the start.

6. Fairy chess

Despite its sissy-sounding name, fairy chess is actually a highly-strategic variation. Fairy chess involves the introduction of “fairy pieces” which are any type of piece with a non-regular type of movement. These pieces are often introduced for the purpose of logical problems, but can significantly change the gameplay or skill level of a game. Fairy pieces can move in any previously agreed upon manner, but common variations involve combining powers of multiple normal chess pieces, adding new directions and distances of movement, adding “hopping” as a movement or capture strategy, or adding restrictions to the movement of a normal piece.

7. Chess with different forces

Chess with different forces is where the number of pieces is changed, often by exchanging some pieces for others. This type of chess usually has at least some pieces in the original positions. There are many configurations of this type of chess. For instance, Dunsany’s chess is where one player’s side is set up as normal while the other has 32 pawns. Peasant’s revolt chess is a setup of chess where one side is normal and the other side has exchanged the queen for eight more pawns.

Chess Pieces

Fairy chess is a type of chess where new pieces are invented to move in ways not normal to chess. These pieces are decided upon before the game begins by both players, usually for the purpose of trying out different strategies or offering new challenges. There are thousands of different recognized fairy chess pieces, and the option to invent a new one for any purpose is always there. There are, however, a number of chess pieces that are more commonly used which have been created using a number of strategies commonly referred to for inventing new pieces. These strategies include creating hybrid pieces, putting additional restrictions on normal pieces, adding movements or directions, or creating new movements entirely, such as hopping. There are, in addition, pieces that are given special powers for alternate types of boards, though the following pieces can all be played in regular chess. What follows are a number of pieces that are good exemplars of these new types of movements that can be used as additions in any otherwise classical game of chess.

1. Amazon

This type of chess piece is considered a hybrid piece, since it combines the powers of the queen and knight, so as to move in any direction like a queen or in the L formation of a knight.

2. Berolina pawn

This type of pawn is the direct reverse of a normal pawn. It can move one square in a diagonal forward motion, except on its first move when it can move two. It captures by moving one square forward.

3. Bug-Eyed Monster

This piece can jump to any square that is not reachable by any of the other orthodox pieces at the current move.

4. Grasshopper

This piece moves the same as a queen, but can hop over other pieces in order to land on a specific square rather than be intercepted or interrupted by interim pieces. It can, however, only land on the square directly on the other side of the hurdle.

5. Odysseus

This piece moves in the same way as a classical chess piece, though it moves as a different classical piece depending on which rank it is currently in.

6. Quang trung rook

This piece moves in the same way as a normal rook, but upon capturing a piece must move one square away from the captured piece’s square.

7. Universal leaper

This piece can leap to any other square on the chessboard.

8. Zero

This piece jumps and lands on the same square without making any move. The point of this piece is to allow a player to bypass his or her turn.

Chessboard Variations

Besides the different configurations of chess pieces, a common way of changing the game of chess is to change the shape or size of the board. This has the effect of changing strategies around in a game of chess, and involving new patterns of logic, which can be an appealing change for people who play a lot of chess. Moreover, certain types of chessboards can involve different types of logic, provide insight into a chess piece’s movement, or allow the game to morph into an entirely new game with a similar level of intellectual strategy as chess. What follows are some common, and some strange, variations of the chessboard.

1. Alice Chess

This game is played with two chessboards. One board is set up as usual, while the other is left empty at the start. Each time a piece moves, it is transported to the opposite chessboard so that pieces are constantly being moved back and forth. A legal move is that in which the chess piece can legally move on its own board, and in which the space to which it will be transported is empty. Pieces capture on their own boards.

2. Circular Chess

This type of chess is played on a board made of four concentric circles, each split into sixteen spaces. This is also topologically interchangeable with cylinder chess (all the rules and relations are the same). The movements here are much like regular chess, except that a “straight” line move goes around the circle (or cylinder) and moves that go all the way around the circle once (becoming a null move) are not allowed. Additionally, any pawn that moves in a straight line for six spaces is considered to be in front of the opposing side’s pawn line. Certain strategies, however, like castling, are not allowed, nor is announcing check obligatory; in fact, in this version the king can be captured, sometimes just by moving into a checked situation.

3. Doublewide Chess

Two chessboards are placed next to each other and each player has two complete sets of pieces. A game is only lost when both kings of one player are capture.

4. Flying Chess

This type of chess involves two chessboards on separate levels. Only certain pieces can go “up” or “down” between dimensions.

5. Gravity Chess

This type of chess requires that every piece is attracted to the h-file so that whenever there is free space between the piece and the h-file, the piece moves as far as it can toward the h-file.

6. Grid Chess

In this type of chess, the board is overlaid with a 4 x 4 grid of lines so that, for a move to be legal, it must cross as least one of these lines.

7. Hexagonal Chess

This type of chess is played on a hexagonal shaped board with tri-coloring. Some pieces move slightly differently due to the arrangement of the “squares” (in this case small hexagons), but the main difference is that each player has three bishops, one for each of the grid’s colors.

8. Minichess

This type of chess involves a smaller chessboard, on a scale of 3 x 3 up to a 7 x 7 chessboard. Because of the lesser number of spaces, there are, of course, fewer pieces involved.

9. Three-Dimensional Chess

This type of chess is more commonly played out in science fiction novels and films (including both Star Trek and a work by Isaac Asimov). The full Asimovian Hyperchess is played on an 8 x 8 cube, though in playable three-dimensional chess, players often use a 5 x 5 cube instead. Some types of three-dimensional chess involve using three full-sized boards, each on different levels. In this type of chess, one player’s pieces line up in one edge of the cube, while the opponent’s pieces line up in the edge diagonally across the cube.