Who'd like to try a chess variant? Now playing Xiang Qi, a.k.a. Chinese chess

Well, it's no secret I enjoy chess, and that I also enjoy the Japanese equivalent shogi.  But the truth is I love all chess variants.  Some I've never actually played with people; only software.  I would be interested in trying out some variants with some adventurous souls.  The following have always interested me.

Grand Chess - In regular chess, the major pieces are rook, bishop, and knight, with the queen combining the value of the rook and bishop.  Though many inventors have had the idea in mind, the inventor of Grand Chess pulled it off best when he decided to make similar combination pieces in this game: the marshall, which is a combination rook/knight, and the cardinal, which is a combination knight/bishop.  The board is 10x10, and supposedly it's a pretty good game.  It'd be fun to try.

Chess with Different Armies - Here is a game I would really, really like to try.  It is mathematically impossible to create a board game of perfect information but with different pieces or objectives that is perfectly balanced.  But the inventor of this game set out to do just that, or come really darn close.  He has created three new armies that can compete against each other or the original chess army on equal footing.  I'm sure there are very slight inequalities, but the armies have been playtested numerous times, and amazingly the games are very fair and equal.  There are other armies that the inventor and others have tried out, but they are not quite so well tested.  I hear this is lots of fun!

Omega Chess - In regular chess, the knight is the only piece that leaps exactly to a destination square, while the rook, bishop, and combo of the two in queen form all ride straight, unobstructed lines to their destination squares.  Some inventors have tried to create a balance in chess pieces, by combining the knight with the rook or bishop (as in Grand Chess above).  But other inventors have instead tried to create that balance by creating an equal number of "riders" and "leapers".  That was the philosophy when this commercial chess variant was invented.  It has good reviews and even recommendations from highly ranked chess players, so it looks and sounds interesting.

Wildebeest Chess - In the same vein as the above variant, Wildebeest chess introduces leaping pieces to try to create balance.  However their leap is different from that of Omega chess: more similar in nature than the knight, but ultimately weaker pieces.  Still, it also seems cool to me.

Self-eliminator - To me this name sounds like Losing Checkers, where players try to be the first to lose all their pieces.  There is an equivalent chess game, but this is not it.  It just has a poor name.  In regular chess, one usually thinks of his pieces as an advantage, a potential weapon against the enemy.  That is, until they trap your own pieces.  Many, if not most checkmates often occur when a king is hemmed in by his own pieces.  If only one could capture friendly pieces in emergencies such as this, not just enemy pieces.  Well, in this game you can.  This presents interesting escapes, but also can be tactically advantageous, for instance capturing your own piece to open a path for another, etc.  It's a simple rule change, but it makes for some very new possibilities.  It too sounds like it'd be worth a try.

Chessgi - To the few who have bothered to read my explanation for shogi, you might see the logic for the silly name.  Chessgi is played just like chess, except that captured pieces become the property of the captor.  Captured pieces can then be reintroduced as part of the captor's army on nearly any square.  It could be a lot of fun.

I'd be interested in playing Self-eliminator Chess and Chessgi sometime. I can't think of how many times I've wanted get rid of a piece I couldn't move, or put a more powerful piece on a square in one turn instead of two or three.

You might want to add this one to the list

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seirawan_chess

@Ric, yes, I think the possibilities are very intriguing.  Perhaps we'll pick up a game when we're done with our shogi ventures.

@Warb, I hadn't heard of that one.  Another game that combines the knight with others, but the method of introducing them sounds interesting.

You know, there are other interesting "chess" variants that are not even chess at all, despite the superficial resemblance.  They might be worth checking out.

Arimaa - Due to Kasparov's defeat at the hands of Deep Blue, game inventor Omar Syed decided to invent a game that can be played with a regular chess set, can be easily learned and played by humans, but cannot be played well by computers (at least at the present).  The wiki article is really worth the read, as is this link as to why there is such a difficulty in creating a competent computer player.

Ultima - Like Arimaa (though much older in invention), Ultima a.k.a. Baroque chess can be played with a standard chess board and pieces, but is a very different game.  In chess, pieces capture in the same manner, but their moves are different.  In Ultima, pieces move the same way (for the most part), but their means of capturing is different.

My question was going to be: Have you ever read Schmidttberger's New Rules for Classic Games?  It's a surprisingly fun book and it mentions Bughouse and Refusal Chess.  It also mentions a similar game to Refusal called Compromise Chess, wherein the player whose turn it is offers both possible moves simultaneously, and the opponent gets to pick which one is implemented.  Personally this sounds even more frustrating.  But now that you've described the other, it really does sound like it has more potential than I gave it credit.  Another interesting game is Double Move Chess, where each player gets two moves, except on the first move where white only gets one.  The goal is merely to capture the king, and it is very difficult to predict, and games are often very short.  There are a number of cool chess variants and other game variants (checkers, backgammon, etc.) in this book, and the whole concept of chess variants has fascinated me for years.  Truthfully, I am a serious chess variant lover, but I've had few converts to my passion, so usually it's more imagining what I'd love to try rather than actually playing.

I've heard many times of Kriegspiel, and I'm curious to know what kinds of hints there are.  I don't know if I have the memory to play a game that way, but I'm sure it's an intriguing challenge.  Progressive Chess sounds utterly horrifying to me.  I imagine games don't last longer than a few turns.  And I've heard of Smess as well, and hear it's an intriguing game.  It's honestly amazing how many underrated games there are, such as Smess.  I remember reading in a book years ago that Smess looks a bit whimsical and may sound simplistic, but it's actually a complex game.  I think it'd be fun to try sometime as well.

You should try out self eliminator chess.  I doubt your students program the AI, do they?  Simply programming the moves sounds pretty straightforward.  You should give it a whirl.  If you're ever interested, I'm sure you've noticed that some of us are playing correspondence games here, and I know RicOlie_2 and I are both interested in Self Eliminator.

If you are into that sort of thing and ever find the book I mentioned, it's worth a look.  I just found my copy and realized that I misspelled his last name: Schmittberger.  It only mentions the softer version of the game where your only legal move must be accepted.  Honestly, I kind of like the idea of one legal move being a loss.  Like you said, it balances out, and you shouldn't have accepted a move that put yourself in that position!

Wow.  That sounds pretty cool!  Best of luck to you and your class :)

DominicCobb said:

Not sure if this is the right place to post this, but I played four player chess with some friends (three to be exact) yesterday. But it was just like normal chess except we all had our own set of pieces.

I won.

That is all.

DominicCobb, since the Nimmar thread probably wasn't the ideal place for your post, maybe this one would suit better. :)

I played the following version once before (sad that I only played it once, since I own it).  I wouldn't be surprised if this is the same game you played.

While this has a similar feel to chess, since every man is for himself, it's a political game more than a tactical game.  I was most certainly the strongest player at the table when I played my friends.  Yet I came in 2nd or 3rd because I was winning early in the game and was clearly the biggest threat.  But I congratulate you on your victory and encourage you to play again.  Try your negotiation skills.  That's actually an aspect of multiplayer games I enjoy more than the tactical aspects!  It's fun to play weak and ultimately win!

Yep that's the exact one we used. Yeah, it became apparent early that negotiations were far more important than strategy. I'm an awful chess player (I very rarely play it, and when I do I have little care for tactics), but I was able to convince the other players to team up on each other, so I eventually won out. It was a good time.

I enjoyed reading through the rules.  I like the idea of a tournament at the end.  May The DECIDER win! ;)

Thanks for sharing.

Hey that's pretty fun, and some of your games sound like interesting chess variants.  I like small variants usually better than large variants, as they rely on more subtle gameplay rather than wildly powerful pieces.  Just looking at Borgo Pass, you've really got a knack for some interesting game invention.  You should submit some of those to chessvariants.org so others could try them out.  Thanks again for sharing.  Makes me laugh that your students keep creaming you :)

Alright, I'm ready for Self-eliminator Chess if you are. It's funny, this thread is the fourth result in a Google search for "Self-eliminator Chess" and first in a search for "Self-eliminator Chess download". I guess it isn't a very common variant. :)

I'll let you make the first move so that you have time to get the zillions file if you don't have it yet (search for selfeliminator, without any hyphens or spaces).

RicOlie_2 said:

Alright, I'm ready for Self-eliminator Chess if you are. It's funny, this thread is the fourth result in a Google search for "Self-eliminator Chess" and first in a search for "Self-eliminator Chess download". I guess it isn't a very common variant. :)

 No, I suppose not, which is striking to me, as it was one of my earliest ideas when I first started coming up with chess variants in 9th grade.

Okay, so obviously I'm busy lately.  But I'll make a move now.

d4

N-f6

c4

d6

e3

c5