Chigorin Chess

Last updated March 19, 2019

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Chigorin Chess, starting position

Chigorin Chess is a chess variant invented by Ralph Betza in 2002.^[1] It was named after Mikhail Ivanovich Chigorin.^[1] Betza commented that

Ralph Betza is a FIDE Master and inventor of chess variants such as Chess with different armies, Avalanche chess, and Way of the Knight.

Today he [Chigorin] is mostly remembered as a player who preferred Knights to Bishops. He didn't, really; instead, he had a more modern understanding of the relative values than his contemporaries, he realized that it all depends on the position, and that losing a tempo to get [Bishop] for [Knight] is usually a bad idea.
— Ralph Betza, Chigorin Chess, The Chess Variant Pages

Rules

The game follows all the rules and conventions of standard chess, with two differences:^[1]

Chess is a two-player strategy board game played on a chessboard, a checkered gameboard with 64 squares arranged in an 8×8 grid. The game is played by millions of people worldwide. Chess is believed to be derived from the Indian game chaturanga some time before the 7th century. Chaturanga is also the likely ancestor of the Eastern strategy games xiangqi, janggi, and shogi. Chess reached Europe by the 9th century, due to the Umayyad conquest of Hispania. The pieces assumed their current powers in Spain in the late 15th century with the introduction of "Mad Queen Chess"; the modern rules were standardized in the 19th century.

White starts with additional knights instead of both bishops, and a chancellor (which moves as rook or knight) instead of a queen, while Black starts with additional bishops instead of both knights, and has a standard queen.^[1]
Pawns can only promote to any piece that their side had at the beginning of the game, except the king. Thus, white pawns may only promote to knight, rook, or chancellor, while black pawns may only promote to bishop, rook, or queen.^[1]

Gameplay

Chigorin Chess was meant to emphasize the contrast between the relative values of knights and bishops in standard chess. Betza commented that it was a good introductory variant for chessplayers, like his earlier Almost Chess.^[1]

Almost Chess is a chess variant invented by Ralph Betza in 1977. The game is played using a standard chessboard and pieces, except the players' queens are replaced by chancellors, which combine the moves of a rook and a knight.

Betza considered that White has a large advantage due to his fast development, being able to castle as early as the third move, whereas Black cannot castle before the fifth move, and to castle that early he must move the f- or h-pawn to develop the g8-bishop and weaken his kingside .^[1]

Castling chess move: a king moves 2 squares towards a rook, which moves to the square crossed over by king; allowed only if king and the rook haven’t moved, squares between king and the rook are free and the king is/wont be in check in any of the 3 squares

Castling is a move in the game of chess involving a player's king and either of the player's original rooks. It is the only move in chess in which a player moves two pieces in the same move, and it is the only move aside from the knight's move where a piece can be said to "jump over" another.

References

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Chigorin Chess at The Chess Variant Pages

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[Betza-1] 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Chigorin Chess at The Chess Variant Pages

Chigorin Chess

Contents

Rules

Gameplay

References