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Avalanche chess is a chess variant designed by Ralph Betza in 1977. After moving one of their own pieces, a player must move one of the opponent's pawns forward one square.
Circe chess is a chess variant in which captured pieces are reborn on their starting positions as soon as they are captured. The game was invented by French composer Pierre Monréal in 1967 and the rules of Circe chess were first detailed by Monréal and Jean-Pierre Boyer in an article in Problème, 1968.
A fairy chess piece, variant chess piece, unorthodox chess piece, or heterodox chess piece is a chess piece not used in conventional chess but incorporated into certain chess variants and some chess problems. Compared to conventional pieces, fairy pieces vary mostly in the way they move, but they may also follow special rules for capturing, promotions, etc. Because of the distributed and uncoordinated nature of unorthodox chess development, the same piece can have different names, and different pieces can have the same name in various contexts as it can be noted in the list of fairy chess pieces.
The empress is a fairy chess piece that can move like a rook or a knight. It cannot jump over other pieces when moving as a rook but may do so when moving as a knight. The piece has acquired many names and is frequently called a chancellor or a marshal.
The princess is a fairy chess piece that can move like a bishop or a knight. It cannot jump over other pieces when moving as a bishop but may do so when moving as a knight. The piece has acquired many names and is frequently called an archbishop or a cardinal; it may also simply be called the bishop+knight compound.
Knight relay chess is a chess variant invented by Mannis Charosh in 1972. In this game, knights relay their power to friendly pieces.
David Brine Pritchard was a British chess player, chess writer and indoor games consultant. He gained pre-eminence as an indoor games and mind sports consultant, a role that he in effect created. A natural games player, it was to him that inventors or publishers would turn to organise a championship of a new game, write about it or generally promote it.
Chess with different armies is a chess variant invented by Ralph Betza in 1979. Two sides use different sets of fairy pieces. There are several armies of equal strength to choose from, including the standard FIDE army. In all armies, kings and pawns are the same as in FIDE chess, but the four other pieces are different.
The Berolina pawn is a popular fairy chess piece based on the pawn. It may move one vacant square diagonally forward, it may move two vacant squares diagonally forward on its first move, and it may capture one square vertically forward. It was invented by Edmund Nebermann in 1926, who named it after the city of Berlin in which he worked. The Berolina pawn is featured in Berolina chess and has found frequent use in chess problems.
Modern chess is a chess variant played on a 9×9 board. The game was invented by Gabriel Vicente Maura in 1968. Besides the usual set of chess pieces, each player has a prime minister and an additional pawn:
Jeson Mor is a two-player strategy board game from Mongolia. It is considered a chess variant. The game is played on a 9×9 checkered gameboard. Each player has nine chess knights initially lined up on the players' first ranks. A player wins by being first to occupy the central square with a knight, and then leave that square.
Cubic chess is a chess variant invented by Vladimír Pribylinec beginning with an early version in 1977. The game substitutes cubes for the chess pieces, where four of the faces of each cube display a different chess piece, the two other faces are blank and are orientated to the players. This provides an efficient means to change a piece's type. Kings and queens have unique cubes containing only their symbol, effectively behaving as normal.
Philip M. Cohen is the inventor of several chess variants. He authored the column "Olla Podrida" in the periodical Nost-algia published by the correspondence game club NOST. The column regularly featured chess variants, many experimental, since 1972.
Wolf chess is a chess variant invented by Dr. Arno von Wilpert in 1943. It is played on an 8×10 chessboard and employs several fairy pieces including wolf and fox – compound pieces popular in chess variants and known by different names.
Balbo's game is a chess variant invented by M. [Monsieur] G. Balbo in 1974. The chessboard has a novel shape comprising 70 squares, and each player commands a full chess army minus one pawn.
Almost chess is a chess variant invented by Ralph Betza in 1977. The game is played using a standard chessboard and pieces, except that each player's queen is replaced by a chancellor, a piece which combines the moves of the rook and the knight.
Chess on a really big board is a large chess variant invented by Ralph Betza around 1996. It is played on a 16×16 chessboard with 16 pieces and 16 pawns per player. Since such a board can be constructed by pushing together four standard 8×8 boards, Betza also gave this variant the alternative names of four-board chess or chess on four boards.
Grant Acedrex is a medieval chess variant dating back to the time of King Alfonso X of Castile. It appears in the Libro de los Juegos of 1283.
A chess variant is a game related to, derived from, or inspired by chess. Such variants can differ from chess in many different ways.
References
- Pritchard, D. B. (1994). The Encyclopedia of Chess Variants. Games & Puzzles Publications. ISBN 0-9524142-0-1.
- Pritchard, D. B. (2007). Beasley, John (ed.). The Classified Encyclopedia of Chess Variants. John Beasley. ISBN 978-0-9555168-0-1.
