Friday, August 30, 2013

Rules update ;-)

 SPECIAL: Denial

Denial is a special move that allows a player to deny one movement of another player, the player with the denial right can deny one move at any time, the opposing player that have the move denied must undo the last move and perform a different one (with the same piece or any other, note that knights capturing a piece in the last square of it's move have two paths, so there are moves that cannot be denied because the knight in this case can reach and capture a piece following two different paths). After the player with denial right uses this special movement the opposing player gain the denial right.

After any player denies a movement, that player next movement cannot be denied, in other words, when a player denies a movement the opponent must undo his last move and perform a new one, then the game resumes but the first move of the player that just used the denial cannot be denied, after that the denial rules apply as normal.

Black pieces starts the game with the denial right.

SPECIAL: Bait

Bait is a special move used only in response to a check, when one King is in check (it must begin a turn in check, one player cannot put their King in check and use Bait if at the beginning of their turn it's not already in check) and a pawn of the same color of the checked King in at one or two squares apart in a clear move path(not capturing anything on the path), in other words, if a pawn of the same color is in reach of a King movement, but not in reach of a King capture.

When you use bait you must keep your King under check (or else the bait fails and the play resumes normally, since you are not under check any more) and you must keep at last one Pawn reachable (or else it's checkmate, so it's an impossible move), so you can move any piece and ignore the check (including doing checkmate and winning the game if it is possible), on the next turn the attacker MUST make a move move to capture the King (even it their own king is under check, but the way the King is captured is free, if there are options) but instead of capturing the King, it captures one pawn under reach of your King and your King is transported to the captured pawn location(this DOES NOT count as a movement), then you make your movement after replacing your King and the game resumes normally (you can "chain bait" if you have material, in another words, you can replace one of your Pawns in reach with your King even if you are under check and bait again if it is possible(or escape check as usual, since it's you turn), and both players can bait each other until there is no more Pawns available)


A bait can be denied as usual only in a turn it's is declared, but if there is more than one move available (the bait with the free movement of that turn), it may not be very useful (for counter the bait itself, but can be useful to counter the move). If there is only one possible move, then the bait cannot be done and you must escape the check the usual way if it's possible with the only possible move (otherwise it's checkmate). If you have a Statue you can use bait anywhere on the board, replacing the Statue with your King as if it was a Pawn but reachable from anywhere, you can see more about Statues in the Pawn section bellow.


SPECIAL: Capture and Exile


A capture is a capture, nothing new, when you capture an opponent piece put it on your side, outside the board, the new rules of Pawn promotion states that the Pawn can be promoted to a captured piece, or an exiled piece but never an extra piece that is not captured by an opponent or exiled by yourself (never two Queens of the same color, never 3 Bishops, etc...), more details at Pawn moves.
A Exiled piece is a piece captured by our own pieces or the result of a Bishop auto-exile, there are only three movements that can exile a piece: 
1) The Queen all-round capture performed as a move or as a result of being captured, it exiles pieces of the same color and captures pieces of the opposite color.
2) When a piece above a Rook "falls" upon a piece of the same color, the piece behind the rook is exiled, not captured.
3) When a Bishop is removed from the table after being raised from the dead, but only if they are not captured "again" until the end of their turn when they are auto-exiled. 

 You can Exile Your own King(with your Queen at the beginning of a game, this is not a very good opening by the way if you make it as the first movement because of material loss, and the King is a strong piece until you loose lots of pawns), this move is named King in Exile and you can only lose a game if you lose all your pawns (the King can never return) or if an opposing pawn captures an exiled piece instead of promoting (in both case, the move before must be announced as a check and the rules follows as usual, 
denials can be used as usual. 

 A King in Exile can never use a Bait. 

 If your opponent have a Statue you cannot have a King in Exile, since statues can capture exiled pieces as a movement.


King

The King can move once(as normal) or twice in a round, each of its move is exactly the same of the normal chess but can be done two times in a row. This means that the king can capture two pieces in one movement, move to a checked square in the first move and then escape to a safe one in the second (even returning to it's initial square, witch is very useful to capture an enemy piece near the king and returning to a safe position in the same movement).

Castling is a Kings move, so the King can move a second time when castling is performed, usually the King jumps inside the Rook when this is done (jumping inside the Rook will be explained soon).

The King still could not end its last move in a checked square, but it can move to a checked square and even capture pieces in the first move (the King can capture even pieces that explode or raise from the dead on the first move, if the second movement is safe and is not checked it's OK).

Denying a Kings move is not so strong as it is in "normal" chess(if denial was even possible), that's because almost all of its possible moves can be performed using alternative paths.


Queen

This piece moves and captures just like the Queen in normal chess, but it have a special movement option and a special effect when it is captured. The special move is the all-round capture, INSTEAD of a normal move or capture the Queen can use the all-round capture, when this is done every piece in one of the adjacent squares (horizontally,vertically and diagonally, there are a maximum of 8 such squares if the Queen is on the center and a minimum of 3 if she's on a corner) are captured or exiled, if its the opposing color it's captured, if it's the same color it's exiled, so if the Queen performs the all-round capture while her King is near it's became a "King in Exile" game for you, at any time you can promote a pawn to the King the usual ways (reaching the last square or promoting an exiled piece with a Bishop).

Note that you cannot normally move the Queen and perform the all-round capture at the same time, you need to choose what movement you´ll do with your Queen.

The special effect that the Queen MUST perform when she is captured is the revenge, when she is captured the Queen must immediately perform an all-round capture and if there is a piece in the square that she was, that piece is captured too (this can capture or exile up to nine pieces in a row, 8 for the all-round capture and another one that is in the square that the Queen was when she was captured). This special effect is performed automatically at the moment that the Queen is captured, even her King can be exiled this way.

The all-round move of the Queen is the only movement that allow you to willingly exile your own pieces, revenge will also exile your pieces but it is a forced movement, there are other movements in special circumstances(Bishops and Rook as we'll see soon) that can exile pieces of the same color.


Rook

The Rook moves in the same way as in the normal chess, the only different thing is that any piece that could move into the square occupied by the Rook if the Rook was not there can jump inside it. When a piece jump inside a Rook it's put on the top of the Rook (I hope your chess pieces are able to balance itself upon your Rook :-) ) and cannot be captured (except by the Knights as we'll see later) before the Rook is captured.

When a Rook is captured the pieces upon it fall in the square that it was immediately capturing any piece that is on this square if it is of the opposing color, or exile if it is of the same color of the piece falling from the Rook.

Note that jumping inside Rooks and capturing pieces by falling from a Rook can be done recursively as long as there are queued Rooks and pieces. Suppose that there are two black Rooks and a black Pawn queued and a white Rook with a white Pawn queued just captured the black Rook, when this happens the white Rook capture the first black Rook and the another black Rook with the black Pawn inside falls capturing the white Rook, then the white Pawn falls and capture the second black Rook, then the black Pawn falls and capture the white Pawn and the game resumes.

When a piece is inside a Rook it's highly protected (only a Knight can capture it or a Pawn can remove it as we'll see soon) and it may be a good idea to put your King inside one as fast as possible (castling movement can be used to do this), the piece inside the Rook can jump off the Rook normally as a movement, but the Rook still moves and capture normally (horizontally and vertically only as normal chess) regardless of the pieces queued inside it.

Note that pieces inside Rooks are queued, so, when the Rook is captured the pieces remains FIFO (the last one remains on top, the first ones to be queued are on the bottom and are the ones to capture or be captured first). Pieces can jump off the Rook as a normal movement of the respective color(the color of the piece that is jumping off, not necessary the color of the Rook in the base) as they are moving or capturing from the square that the Rook is. (yes, you can capture a piece near a Rook with a King and jump inside the Rook with the King in the same movement, you can also use the all-round capture of a Queen inside a Rook).

The King inside a Rook is not checked unless the piece checking it can capture the King in the next movement, not only the Rook bellow the King, so, a King inside an enemy tower can be really funny. A Pawn inside a Rook cannot promote automatically, it need to "land" on the last square to be promoted (or turn it to a statue, or capture an opponent exiled piece).


Knight

The Knight moves in the same way as in the normal chess, but it can capture one piece in it's path instead of one in the end of it's movement (so, that's why a Knight is not entirely immune to Denial rules as it would be in normal chess), the restriction is that only one piece can be captured per movement (Knights like to duel :-)), so, you can move your Knight to an unoccupied square and capture one piece in a square that it jumped in it's path.

The Knight also can jump, this jump can be used as in normal chess (except that a piece in it's path can be captured as described above) but it also can be used to capture any opponent piece inside rooks, when this is done all other rules apply normally. One complex and very unusual example is when 4 Rooks are queued with a Pawn inside then on top, if the Knight can capture the third Rook (and do it without ending it's movement inside the queue of Rooks) the only piece that will remain is the Pawn (and the Knight), that will happen because the last Rook with the top Pawn will fall upon and capture or exile the other two Rooks on the basin when the third queued Rook is captured/exiled, this triggers the falling capture movement of the Rook that is captured by the Knight as described above, note that the other pieces are captured or exiled by the Rooks falling upon then, the Knight just capture one of the Rooks and all other things happens as a chain reaction of the first capture, so, this is a complete valid movement.

Knights can capture and end it's movement inside a Rook normally, the only restriction is that only one piece should be captured by the Knight. Knights can jump over Statues but cannot capture then.


Bishop

The Bishop moves and captures pieces in the same way they do in normal chess, but they can raise from the dead once when they are captured and they can promote any Pawn to any of your exiled pieces.

When a Bishop is captured or exiled it MAY raise from the dead(you choose to do so, if you choose to not raise, your Bishop is captured, with usually is a bad thing), when this happens the piece in it's square (if there is any) is captured if it's the opposing color or it is exiled if it is the same color (so if a Bishop inside a Rook of the same color is captured by a opposing Knight, it raises from the dead and exiles the Rook bellow it), when the piece is captured this way the Bishop that is just captured return to the game in the same square, doing so captures or exiles the piece in this square as described above. If the Bishop is captured again in the same movement after raising from the dead it cannot raise again (if a Rook with a Pawn inside captures a Bishop, the Bishop raises from the dead capturing the Rook but the Pawn immediately captures the Bishop falling from the Rook). When a Bishop raises from the dead it can make just one more normal movement in the next turn of it's color player,  at the end of that players turn the bishop is auto exiled (it exiles itself, remove it from the table and put it on your side) no matter if the player choose to move the Bishop or any other piece, but if the Bishop is captured before the turns end it is really captured instead of exiled.


Your Bishop can promote any of your Pawn that is on the same square color of the Bishop if and only if the Pawn promotes to an Exiled piece, this promotion counts as a movement and does not need the Pawn to be at the last square, so as long as you have one Bishop alive, you can promote anything you have exiled, including your own King.


A Bishop can check a King inside a Rook alone (supposing the Rook is in the Bishop diagonal) because if the Bishop captures the Rook with the King inside, the King will fall upon the Bishop Capturing it, then the Bishop will raise from the dead and checkmates.



Pawn

Pawns have many special movements, they can move forward, backward and horizontally one square (unless it's at the second roll, then they can double move but not move and capture) and capture diagonally one square as usual.

The backward and horizontal one-square moves works the same way that the normal forward moves, even the double-square move when a Pawn is in any Pawn starting square(second row) can be done horizontally (and the en passant can be done in a similar way, if an opposing Pawn checks the horizontal square that the Pawn jumps in the two-squared movement), the only exception is that a Pawn can never end a move in the first row, be it making a backward move in it's starting position or trying to move horizontally from a Rook, if a Pawn is forced to end any turn in the first row (falling from a captured Rook) it captures itself in the end of the turn.

A Pawn inside a Rook can be in the first row (the same way that a Pawn inside a Rook is not promoted if it reaches the last row until the Pawn jump off or falls from the Rook), but it cannot jump inside a Rook moving backward its starting position because the movement of the Pawn to the first row isn't valid (remember that only valid moves can be done to jump inside a Rook).

Note that Pawns still cannot capture pieces backward, nor back-diagonally, nor horizontally, the Pawn capture powers are exactly the same as in the normal chess.

The second special movement of the Pawn is the disguise, the disguise is the only movement that exchanges the places of two pieces (bait can do it, but it is not a movement and the Pawn is captured in the process). To perform a disguise the Pawn must be able to move to the square that another piece is (not capture, just move to) as if that another piece wasn't there, regardless of it's color. When the disguise is performed the piece and the Pawn exchange places.

One sample of disguise is when a King (not in the first row) is checked and a Pawn is behind it, the Pawn can disguise as the King and exchange places with it, note that it's a Pawn move, not a Kings move (so, no double moves there). Another interesting move is to disguise as a opposing King replacing it inside a Rook, suppose that an enemy Tower with an enemy King inside is near a Pawn (or at the two-squares range of a Pawn first movement), the Pawn can disguise as the enemy King (since it can move inside the Rook as if the King wasn't there) and exchange places with the King probably putting the opposing King in a very bad situation.

The last movement of the Pawn is the chain disguise, this is a disguised movement performed when there are several Pawns of the same color vertically or horizontally adjacent to each other, the first Pawn make a normal disguise, then, any Pawn that can move to the square where the first was can instantly perform another disguise with the piece being disguised (including double-square Pawn moves when it's possible).

Suppose the sample of disguising an enemy King inside a Rook above, if there are a chain of friendly pawns adjacent to the first one (or at two squares it they are in any Pawn starting square) the King can be chain disguised to any square containing a Pawn in a valid position.

If an en passant is done when a Pawn is disguising or chain disguising the piece captured is the Pawn, never the disguised piece. In the case of an en passant in a chain disguise the pawn captured is the one that moved two squares, in other words, if the two square is done forward the Pawn that is on the front is captured, it it´s made with a Pawn from the right to the left, the one that remains in the left is captured.

Pawns can do the double move at any time when they are at a valid Pawn starting position, even if the Pawn was already moved before. The seventh row is a starting position only for the enemy Pawns, not yours, so your Pawn cannot double move when they are there. Pawns also cannot double move when they are inside Rooks, the same way they are not promoted nor self-captured when they are inside Rooks. Pawn can double move in any direction available, it can move forward and then move again backward if it is on a start position (usually not very fruitful), or can move forward once then move horizontally once, you must specify the path for possible an passant captures (and for denial rules as usual).

Pawns can never double move backward if the Pawn is in the fourth row it cannot double move to a starting square(it seems to be obvious, but it can confuse beginners in the case of chain disguising), the double move can only be performed from the starting square. So, a disguise cannot be performed to put a piece from the second row with a Pawn in the fourth row, nor it can chain disguise a piece there (the opposite is OK, a Pawn can chain disguise a piece in the fourth roll to the second roll if the third roll have no pawns on the path).

Pawn promote if they end any turn in the last row and is not captured until the end of that turn, this can be relevant if the Pawn is inside a Rook and falls, it cannot be promoted if it is captured before the end of the turn. Note that Pawns inside Rooks does not promote until they jump off the Rook (or falls) as it's written above.


A Pawn can never be exiled, if it would happen, capture it instead.

Promotion Rules: A Pawn CAN(you can opt to make it a statue or capture an exiled piece, see bellow) only be promoted to a piece captured by your opponent or exiled by you, so, there never can be 2 Queens of the same color, or 3 Knights, etc... (only the 32 original pieces will do the job, always ;-) )


Statue: A pawn need not to promote when it reach the last square, instead you can transform it to a Statue, a Statue really destroy a square until it's gone, the square is off the game for anything except for Knights jumps, but a Statue can never be captured. If another of your Pawns reach the 7th row just before one of your the Statues, it can be promoted or "chain statued", to promote a statue you need not expend a movement, you can promote a statue even at the end of the opponent turn. You can even promote your own king from a Statue.


 You can use bait anywhere if you have a statue (the King does not need to "reach" the statue), you cannot use bait if your own King is in exile as usual.

 If you promote a chained Statue, you need to promote the Statues at lower rows first, you can never have a Statue "floating" in any square except the last square without another Statue in the front of it. Statues are represented as Pawns, nothing new, but they remain in the last position (or a chain of Statues in the same column reaching always connecting with the last position)

Capture exiled pieces: Instead of promotions or Statues a pawn can capture any piece in exile, i does not count as a movement but can only be performed in your turn, a Statue can capture in exile also. The pawn that captures a piece in exile is captured when doing so. (this is a very effective way to prevent a King in Exile, keeping a Statue in game)


4 comments:

  1. Fisher Shuffle Chess ( Fisher , B.Aires 1977)is the exact same chess, it is more interesting, with the same rules, only change is the start random positions (mirrored). 960 possible start positions, including the old one (arghh). A variant to be popular has to be simple like FSC. Un peasant takes could had been removed but weren't. Castle remained the same but the journey can have many more empty squares... so nothing else to learn about the laws, pure fun.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I am a robot, and i would like to write even if the computer doesn't like me

    ReplyDelete
  3. We are the robots!

    He he he, I think the universe will reach it's heat death before this variant become popular :-), long story short, it all begins to allow very nice stacks of pieces upon rooks and then the other rules follows to balance everything.
    Fischer chess is amazing for it's simplicity and(for robots) because you build a game movement graph tree with lots of roots, making it hard to find good algorithms for then, also, there is a funny publication if you like the mathematical stuff, unfortunately, it's gone since 2010, but you can find some good old stuff here: http://www.mayhematics.com/s/contents.htm#vol1. There is also plenty of new stuff on the net (http://www.chessvariants.org/ or on wikis).

    ReplyDelete
  4. Hmmm, I need to name this thing (crazy chess is a placeholder name), maybe the name should be: Dysnomia Chess

    And there will be a variant called Dysnomia Chaturanga that allow players to exchange the King and Queen positions before the game starts ^_^.

    ReplyDelete