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.