A Cheshire Cat Chess Game (Annotated)

Cheshire cat chess is a variant in which when a piece moves, the square it moved from "disappears" in the sense that no piece can move on that square anymore. However a piece can move over that square to an unused square. Castling is impossible in this variant, however king's first move can be a queen's move.

In this variant the board deteriorates quickly. You want to have empty squares that you can move into, but you also want to keep in mind that if a player cannot make a legal move it is stalemate, ie the game is a tie (18% of the games ended in tie according to Brainking.com statistics). The initial queen move of the king is quite important, and you do not want to use that move unnecessarily. If the king has already made its first move, it is very likely that it will not be able to move when given check next time, since the squares get used up very quickly. At some point players end up having to move any piece they can, and this can be used against them.

[Site "BrainKing.com"]
[Date "2011.06.23"]
[White "Andres_Iniesta"]
[Black "Koksal"]

1. c4 c5 2. Nc3 Nc6 3. a3 e5 4. e3 Nf6 5. g3 h5 6. h4 e4



In the image, the red squares indicate the used up squares. Here black is trying to use squares which would normally be used by white, hence trying to gain some long term advantage. Also note that many times the rooks are pretty much blocked. Most times they stay in their original square, and sometimes they enter the game by capturing (or having to capture) a piece along their file when pawn exchanges open up that file.

7. Bh3 d5 8. Bxc8 Rxc8 9. Nxd5 Nxd5 10. cxd5 Qxd5 11. f4 exf3 12. Qxf3 Qe6



There is no need to exchange the queens just yet. White does not have many moves to play, but black should be careful not to cause a stalemate.

13. a4 a5 14. b3 b6 15. Qxc6+ Rxc6

White is going for the stalemate.

16. b4 cxb4 17. d4



This move quickens white's demise. Here, black moves and mates in 2. I missed this in the actual game for one turn. To see the solution, see black's 18th move.

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Bd6 18. g4 Rxc1+ 19. Rxc1 Qxe3 mate 0-1

Here please see that the black queen is protected by the king (which can move as a queen, since it has not moved yet).

On Maharaja and the Sepoys (aka Maharajah Chess)

Maharaja and the Sepoys (Maharajah Chess on Brainking.com) is a variant in which a regular chess army is fighting against a royal Q + N moving piece (= maharaja). Pawns do not promote, and the aim is checkmating the opponent's royal piece (white's maharajah or black's king). This is not a real variant in the sense that black, with proper play, always wins.

On Chessvariants.com it says "A carefully playing black player should be able to win. However, this is not always easy, and in many cases, when the white `Maharaja' breaks though the lines of black, he has good chances to win." I will try to show the way black has to play to win. The black player was sacha in the actual game, so the credit for the method goes to him. (It should also be noted that this is not the only nor the best method for black's win.)

Phase 1: Open up the center, develop the knights:



Phase 2: d4 and e4 knights, and the 5th line pawn wall:



Phase 3: King's side pawns on 4th row, bishops on d6 and e6:



Phase 5: Play c4, transfer the black squared bishop and the queen via c5 into maharaja's territory:



Here the red circled squares are the safe squares for maharaja. Next, black will drive the maharaja to f, g, h columns by threatening it with the queen. Then black will play Qc1, limiting maharaja to g2 and h2 and mate it by moving h3 and g3 in proper order. Which ends the proof.

To add more challenge to the game, one could give the maharaja ability to move to any square on the board once in the game (à la castling in regular chess, just a move in a bigger scale). I am not sure if black would still be able to win if that was the rule.

An Extinction Chess Stalemate Position

In this position, white who is to move has no legal moves to make. So it's a stalemate and the game is a draw. Please see why the white pawn at f7 cannot move.

For further information on this variant see my previous post on Extinction Chess with Mating Rules.

Compact Shogi (A New Variant)

This is a "modest" shogi variant. Chessvariants.com uses the word "modest" for a variant in the sense that the variant is relatively simple, can be played using a regular playing set of the main variant (in this case a standard shogi set) etc.



The game is played on a 7x7 board with the usual shogi pieces (except that there is 1 of each non-pawn piece) and the opening setup is as above, although assumably one could use some other startup of their choice. All usual shogi rules apply, except that the promotion zone for each player is the two rows at which the opponent's pieces begin the game.

In a shogi game, usually a king is moved to one of the corners, and a fortress is built around it within the first 10 moves or so. Compact shogi is meant to prevent the need (or the opportunity) to do that, while not losing much complexity from the original game keeping every kind of piece on board.

This game could be played using a regular chess set with some minor inconveniences such as using a reversed rook for the lance, and some not so minor inconveniences such as keeping track of a piece's color when it is placed on the board after being captured.

Three Kings Chess (A New Chess Variant)

One can find two similar variants on Chess Variants pages, Triumvirate Chess and Two Kings Chess, so this is not a "totally new" variant.

Unlike Two Kings Chess, the queens are kept on board, so it does not feel like an end game right away. The bishop pair is purposefully preserved as well. The kings are sitting at separate places so hopefully there will be a fight on all sides of the board. See the board below for the starting position:



The rules are the same with the usual FIDE chess rules, except the following:

- The goal is checkmating at least one of the kings. If one or more kings are threatened (under check), the defending side must make a move to remove the threat from all his kings. If the defending side cannot do that , the game ends, the defending side loses (checkmate). A king cannot move into a square which is under threat by the opponent.
- There is no castling.

Also note that, similar to regular chess, stalemate happens when one side does not have a legal move to make. Then, the game is a draw.

Extinction Chess with Mating Rules (Checkmate, Stalemate)

Recently, I have been trying to apply checkmate rules to Extinction Chess. Currently in Extinction Chess, when you capture the last piece of a kind, you win the game. However you could set the rules so that if there is only one piece of a kind left on the board, that piece becomes "royal". If threatened (checked), a royal piece has to get rid of the threat somehow (move outside the threat, block the threat, or capture the threatening piece). If the threat would remain, the game ends there (mate). Then, if a situation occurs where currently no royal piece on your side is threatened, however you cannot make a legal move (if any move would cause one of your royal pieces to become threatened) it would cause a draw (stalemate).



It is important to note that having multiple royal pieces on the board makes "forking" a valid way of mating. If you threaten two royal pieces of opponent with one of your pieces, the only way to end all the threats in one move is to capture the threatening piece. See the diagram above for an example (assuming both black pieces are the last of their kind ie royal).



Another way of mating that we do not see in regular chess is when a royal piece has to move to get away from being threatened, but this would cause another royal piece to come under threat. See the diagram above for an example (again, assuming both black pieces to be the last of their kind).

I think this would make Extinction Chess more in line with the original (FIDE) chess. The rules change would not matter for 99.9% of the games (except that noone would lose for forgetting their king under check). The remaining 0.1% of games would involve stalemates, for which under current rules the side who has to move their pieces into threat would lose the game. See the diagram below for an example of a stalemate. Black, to move, has no legal moves, and since white is not giving any check, the position would be a stalemate, ie a draw.

A Three-Checks Chess Game

Three-Checks chess is an interesting and very playable variant, in which the first player who gives three checks wins the game (or before that, a regular checkmate works too). See Brainking or Wikipedia for more detailed rules.

The game below is played by me against a strong opponent. I am still figuring out the strategy to the game.

[Site "BrainKing.com"]
[Date "2011.06.10"]
[White "ughaibu"]
[Black "Koksal"]

1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 e6 3. Bc4 a6 4. a4 Nc6 5. O-O Bd6

Up till now, it could have been a regular chess or an extinction chess game. Now black is threatening for a check on h2. 3 checks is not too many, so, depending on the situation of course, trading a minor piece for a check is most times sound.

6. g3 h5 7. e5 Nxe5 8. Nxe5 Bxe5 9. d4 cxd4 10. Re1 Qc7 11. Qe2 f6 12. h4 Ne7



Preventing check on e6, so that the bishop is free to be sacrificed at g3.

13. Ra3 b6 14. Nd2 Bb7 15. Ne4 Bxe4 16. Qxe4 d5 17. Bb5+

White's check number 1, sacrificing a bishop.

17... axb5 18. Qd3 Kf7 19. f4 Kg8



This move is probably unnecessary, but here it is hard to suggest black anything good. The center is about to break. Maybe it would have been better playing 19... b4 keeping queen's side shut.

20. axb5 Rxa3 21. Qxa3 Kf7 22. fxe5 Qc5

A desperate counter-attack attempt, which is thwarted easily.

23. Qd3 Qc4 24. Qf3 Nf5 25. exf6 gxf6 26. Rxe6



If white king captures that rook Qxf5+ and then g4+ makes three checks for white. Black resigned.

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