BrainRook.com - Chess and variants

Dark Chess draw rules

nospam@example.com (Olavi Jaggo) — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 05:01:09 -0500

I've been thinking when should a Dark Chess game be declared a draw.

Obviously, games might occur where none of the opponents has a reasonable chance of winning, but one of them stubbornly refuses to agree to a draw and insists on playing on. The problem is well known in Standard Chess, and therefore there is a number of rules to determine under which conditions a player can demand that a game be declared a draw.

There are three occasions when a Standard Chess game can be declared a draw against the will of one or both of the players:
1. Stalemate;
2. Upon request of the player who is on the move, if the same position is repeated for the 3rd time, it’s been the same player’s move each time and the rights of castling and en passant capture have not been lost;
3. Upon request of the player who is on the move, if each player has made 50 moves without a capture or a pawn move. In certain cases (e.g. King + 2 Knights vs. King + Pawn), the number of moves required is 75.
As you can see, in the first case, the game is always a draw, regardless whether or not the players want it, whereas in the last two cases, the game can only be declared a draw if one of the players requires it. (In chess software, rules 2 and 3 are often enforced automatically, but never in chess tournaments.)
I should also mention that some national chess rules include a fourth draw rule, according to which a game is declared a draw when a checkmate is theoretically impossible, e.g. King vs. King, King + Bishop vs. King etc. However, FIDE rules at the time of writing state that if one of the players objects, the game must be continued until the 3rd repetition rule or the 50 move rule becomes applicable.

Now, let’s look if and how those draw rules can be used for Dark Chess games. After that, let’s discuss the possibility of other means for defining draws.

Continue reading "Dark Chess draw rules"

Chess - improving your play

nospam@example.com (James) — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 01:53:07 -0500

Back in the days, if someone set his/her mind on becoming a reasonable chess player (or turning their offspring into one), there wasn’t a whole lot they could do about it, other then sign up to a chess club, where they could only hope they’d stumble upon a master who would not spare the effort to aid their development properly.
Nowadays, thanks to technological advancements, learning tools have become much more accessible for those truly willing to improve.
The computer, being the wonderful good-for-everything tool that it is, can be a superb aid for beginners. There are many chess programs out there (some of which come as cheap as 40-50 bucks) which will pit players against the pre-programmed skills of a virtual brain. Like it or not, these programs are likely to give players an exceptionally sturdy challenge in the beginning. Unlike playing online poker, learning to play chess against human opponents can often be intimidating. Playing against a computer eliminates that aspect and makes sure the rookie stays fully focused on the game. The computer won’t taunt junior, and won’t go into a rage when it finally loses a game. The downsides of learning to play chess on a computer program are diverse too, though. Therefore, it is seldom recommended as an advanced learning tool. It’s more like a fast and accessible way to get started in the sport.
The social aspect lacking, the chess program will not teach players any people skills, and believe it or not, playing chess has a lot to do with knowing how to handle people. Even though the “professional” chess engines feature a plethora of individual settings which can be used to fine-tune their play, a computer program will never be able to even approximate the behavior of a human opponent, and thus it is not going to prepare someone for the battle against natural intelligence. Bottom line is, an offline chess program, beyond the advantages it provides, has some pretty obvious limitations. One can basically use it for putting strategies to the test, training, analyzing games and solving chess problems. Make no mistake, all of these factors are useful, but in order to take his/her play to the next level, a player needs to measure up against human opposition.
Fortunately, the computer still doesn’t fall out of the equation here. Online training and learning can be much more valuable than what any good chess program can provide. Nowadays, playing chess online doesn’t involve more fuss than preparing yourself a cup of coffee. As one specialist puts it: it has never been easier to find a human opponent, no matter what time of the day you feel the urge to give the grey matter in your skull a little bit of workout. There are chess servers online 24/7, some of which are free, while others are paid. Depending on the level of expertise you’re looking for, and the conditions in which you like to play, you can choose any of those. Player traffic is certainly very important when playing chess (or some other board game) online, because you definitely do not want to spend half an hour waiting for some potential opponent to drop in. In this respect, large and popular servers provide much better services, whether they’re free or paid.
The power of the internet will impact one’s chess education on several levels though. Chess websites do much more than just provide a safe and stable platform where opponents can hack away at each-other. They bring the social aspect of the game back into the fold via specialized forums, where public wisdom comes for free, and socialization is right at home, too. Before the internet, many of the people who joined chess clubs did so for the social benefits involved. Those same social benefits are conveyed through community message boards and forums these days. It is kind of scary if one stops to think about the fact that one doesn’t even have to leave the house to become an excellent chess player anymore.
The articles and in-depth analysis on certain aspects of the game come in extremely handy as well, whether the discussion is about the King’s Indian Attack or the Marshall Attack.
Online chess sites, portals and servers play host to a wealth of information about this game, adding to it the benefit of the “wisdom of the crowd”. As soon as it appeared, the internet looked like something that could potentially revolutionize all boards games as well as card-games, and in the case of chess, we can safely state that the transformation has come full circle indeed.

Online poker rakeback can single handedly turn you into a winner. Do not neglect this edge.

The Rules of Chess – A Basic Guide to Understanding the Game

nospam@example.com (jimmyrock) — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 01:45:00 -0500

The Rules of Chess – A Basic Guide to Understanding the Game

The Board

Chess is played on a chequered board containing 64 squares.

The squares of the board alternate in color and are termed light, and dark squares.

These squares are arranged into rows and columns.

Rows are called ranks and are numbered from 1 – 8

Columns are called files and are labeled from A – H

Pieces are set up in lines which are parallel to the files, and perpendicular to the ranks of the board.

The Pieces

Pieces are divided into two sets which are generally called white and black, despite what the colors of the pieces actually are.

Each player starts with 16 pieces. Those pieces are…

1 King: Arguably the most important piece on the board, the point of the game is to try and capture your opponent’s king. The king can move in any direction one space.

1 Queen: A powerful piece the queen can move in a straight line in any direction, as far as the player wants, as long as another piece doesn’t get in the way.

2 Bishops: The bishop can move diagonally in any direction, as far as the player wants, as long as another piece doesn’t get in the way,

2 Knights: A Knight can move two squares forward and one step to the right or left. This move can be done in any direction, as long as the same amount of distance is covered in the same way. The knight can also make his move over other pieces.

2 Rooks: The Rook can move in a straight line in any direction, as far as the player wants, as long as another piece doesn’t get in the way.

8 Pawns: Pawns are the backbone of a chess army. In general they can only move forward and can only move one space at a time. However, on their first move they can go forward two spaces. Also, the only way for a pawn to capture an enemy, is to move diagonally to take them.

The board is positioned so that the closest square to each player on their far right is light colored.

The row closest to each player contains the non pawn pieces.

If you are the white team, the pieces are set up from left to right as rook, knight, bishop, queen, king, bishops, knight, rook.

If you are the black team the pieces are set up from left to right as rook, knight, bishop, king, queen, bishop, knight rook.

The two armies should be mirror images of one another. Each queen should stand on a square of its own color.

Game Play

The player who is designated to be white makes the first move.

Pieces are moved either to an unoccupied square or to a square with an opponent’s piece on it. Each player can move one piece on each turn, and turns are alternated. When your piece moves onto an opponents piece, their piece is said to be captured, and is taken out of play.

En passant is a move done by two opposing pawns, in which one pawn can capture the other, under special conditions, without moving to his square.

Casteling is a move in which both the king and the rook move during the same turn, to a predefined position, under special circumstances.

If during play a pawn reaches the other end of the board, they are promoted, and can be exchanged for an extra of any piece the player wants except the king.

The object of the game is to capture your opponent’s king.

When a player maneuvers their pieces such that on their next move they can capture the opponent’s king, the opponent is said to be in check.

When a player is in check, they have to move their pieces in such a way that they get out of check before the next move.

If it is not possible to move their pieces in such a way that they get out of check before the opponents next move, the player is said to be in checkmate, and loses.

Not all games are ended by putting a player in checkmate. A player can resign, or if it seams impossible to achieve checkmate, a game may end in a draw.

If it is a timed game a player can also lose by running out of time.

This article provided courtesy of PebbleZ's natural stone chess sets

The Power of Chess Sets in Home Decor

nospam@example.com (jimmyrock) — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 07:13:00 -0400

Chess is a game of mystery to the many people who don�t know its rules. Often even the most intelligent will remark that they don�t really know how it�s played, or never really understood it. For them the existence of a chess board in a setting is a constant challenge which they cannot meet. If it is your chess set, that challenge is being made by you, and it puts you in a subtle position of dominance over the other person.

For those who do play chess, there will be a sense of respect. Chess is a challenge which pits two minds against one another in a struggle for superiority. Your chess set leaves you as open to an invited game as it does your guest. In that game you could win gloriously, or you could lose, humiliatingly. A chess set shows that you are willing to take that risk, and that you are confident enough in your own abilities to handle anyone who enters that room.

A chess set does not necessarily guarantee a challenge every day, but the eventual invitation to battle will arise, and when it does the worst thing you can do is be bluffing. Answering that you �don�t really know how to play� or that you �just keep it around for show� will make you look week, and even phony. While including a chess set in a setting doesn�t require you to be Bobby Fischer, it does help to have a working knowledge of the game for when contests do arise.

When you walk into a room and you see that someone has chosen to display a chess set, your subconscious mind will probably give them a few extra points of respect for their audacity and fearlessness at displaying this open challenge. You may also attribute qualities of strength or intelligence to them, whether they possess these or not, merely because of the possibility presented by that game. These effects are usually very subtle, but by knowing what they are you can use the space around you as a tool to increase perception others have of you.

This article provided courtesy of http://PebbleZ.com home of Unique Stone Chess Sets

Chess and Google Product Search

nospam@example.com (bcturner) — Sun, 03 Jun 2007 17:27:25 -0400

Is Google product search (formerly known as Base or Froogle) affected by external links to a particular set of results. We're trying this with a search for chess sets on google.co.uk. Can it achieve high rankings even though it doesn't have any Google page rank? Currently on page 6 (2nd June 07) - will linking lift it higher - even to compete with the first current chess set retailer. If you want to link - feel free - it's an interesting experiment - the link is:
[http://www.google.co.uk/products?hl=en&rls=GGLJ,GGLJ:2006-33,GGLJ:en&um=1&authorid=1104921&cdn=ChessBaron+Chess+Set&q=&scoring=pd]

This has important implications - it means that as well as optimising web sites - one can optimise the free results allowed by Google. What then of a shop on eBay or a free chess computer page on eSnips or a chess computer page on Squidoo? This potentially gives another realm to any search engine optimisation company that optimise web sites.

An annotated game of Extinction Chess

nospam@example.com (nabla) — Sun, 19 Nov 2006 05:53:33 -0500

Author: nabla

Extinction Chess (official rules here) is one of the most fascinating chess variants. It comes from a very natural enhancement of the goal of the chess game, in that one wins by extincting one species in the opponent's pieces - for instance capturing both knights. With such a phrasing, standard chess can be defined as a kind of restricted Extinction Chess, where only the king's species is taken into account - you certainly know that the goal of chess is to extinct the opponent's king ! This variant manages to be in the same time different enough from standard chess in order to produce a lot of new ideas, but close enough as to keep the most positional features of chess, like pawn structures and space. A game where the chess skills are highly transposable, yet where it is vital to stay fully aware of the additional dangers.

Although it is not only a deep game, but also a very fun game, Extinction Chess is less popular on Brainking that I would have expected. I don't know the reason why, and am taking profit of this column to advocate this variant by annotating in detail one of the two best games I ever played. My opponent played it very well too, equalizing as Black, and then only failing to risk himself into an unpredictable position and falling into a passive one as the result of that choice. The game illustrates how easily an Extinction Chess is unbalanced, and how hard it is to overcome the slightest inaccuracies.

Remark about the notation

Although the rules of Extinction Chess state that there is no check or checkmate, I still find it to be a big help to add the check (+) and checkmate (#) symbols to the game notation, with the meaning that :

A check is a threat to one of the opponent's pieces, which is the last of its kind - such a piece is to be considered as a royal piece as its loss would lose the game.

A checkmate is an unstoppable such threat. Typical Extinction checkmates are double attacks on two last pieces (those are called forks), and attacks on one last piece, whose move would uncover another last piece (those could be called pins, but I prefer to call them skewers). And it is of course also possible to mate a piece in the good old-fashioned way, attacking it in such a way that it has no retreat.

Continue reading "An annotated game of Extinction Chess"

What is your favourite queen sacrifice ?

nospam@example.com (nabla) — Fri, 17 Nov 2006 12:55:00 -0500

Author: nabla

When seeking for a subject of my next chess article, I was thinking of how I could maximize my potential readership, and found out that problem was not so easy. Indeed, one of the great things about the community of chess players is its variety. We have veterans and youngsters, intellectuals and manuals, bankers and tramps, artists and competitors, and since a short time we even have men and women.

Isn't there one common denominator ? Fortunately there is one : we all love queen sacrifices. Ahah, say no more, I have found my theme ! Here are three of the finest chess studies ever composed on the theme of the queen sacrifice. I would even like to issue a poll about which one you will like best.

Continue reading "What is your favourite queen sacrifice ?"

Atomic chess

nospam@example.com (alexandrecubal) — Wed, 01 Nov 2006 02:26:00 -0500

Author: alexandrecubal

The atomic chess has a great advantage: it is quick!
While in chess your king can't do anything that'll hurt him, in atomic there is no such thing as "danger". The game is over when you kill the opponent's king.

Atomic chess has a curious rule: the explosion, which you can learn here!

In atomic, you can win moving only twice or three times your pieces.

THREE MOVES TO VICTORY:
1st: You need to use a knight(B1) in this method. Go B1-C3 and then C3-D5. Then go D5-E7
If you want to use the G1 knight, it's even better:
G1-F3
F3-E5
E5-F7 or E5-D7

2nd: You need to use a bishop(C1) and a pawn(B2 or D2). Move forward the pawn(B2-B3 or D2-D3).
If you moved B2-B3:
C1-A3
A3-E7
If you moved D2-D3:
D3-G5
G5-E7
(This one has 2 more methods)

3rd: Very similar to the 2nd method, but using the queen and the E2 or C2 pawns.
E2-E3 or C2-C3
If E3:
D1-H5
H5-F7 (or maybe H5-E8)
If C3:
D1-A4
A4-D7 (or maybe A4-E8)
(There are a few other methods)

Continue reading "Atomic chess"

Chinese Chess

nospam@example.com (iceninejkw) — Thu, 26 Oct 2006 11:35:06 -0400

Author: iceninejkw

My hobby is Chinese culture and I�ve learned Chinese at least to the point where I can read newspapers and novels and handle most conversations (but not understand televised news reports or most TV programs which are fast, and packed with compressed grammar and words). I�ve also learned Chinese chess but was not interested in it too much until I found a couple of postal sites like brainking that featured it. The western symbols are a great innovation at brainking. At a park here in Shanghai or on a real time Chinese chess site, I get slaughtered quickly. I�m a big patzer and the kibitzers have a good laugh, �Foreigners can�t learn Chinese chess!� But in postal chess you can take your time and let the unfamiliar patterns soak in. What you can see in one minute in Euro Chess (let�s not say �International Chess� or �Chess� anymore) may not occur to you until after 10 or 20 minutes of contemplation in Asian chess. So now I�m taking down some Asian players. Their fast confident play will quickly kill you in a fast game but if you take your time you can spot any strategic or tactical mistakes and roll them back with a counter-attack. My Euro chess skills (my last USCF over the board rating was 2237 although that was about 15 years ago) come into play especially in the middle game if I survive the opening. �Hey! Is this guy using a computer? He plays like a patzer in the opening but a master in the middle game!!� No, I�m a Westerner with some transferable skills from Euro chess.

Continue reading "Chinese Chess"

Spectacular Endings - the foot soldiers

nospam@example.com (Servant) — Sun, 22 Oct 2006 04:37:00 -0400

Author: Servant

Chess is like a triathlon, their are three parts to it, the opening, middlegame and the ending, three stages that are different. You can start out well in a triathlon, the swim and bike ride but it is the final run that decides who wins. A person in the lead after the bike ride can easily lose if they are too tired to run fast, the same applies in chess as a person who has the advantage after the middlegame can still lose in the ending, this thought should boost ones confidence in their abilities when playing a tougher opponent. Knowing endgames can help you as you can then think ahead in the late middlegame and have a better idea if you are winning, drawing or unfortunately losing. This knowledge then dictacts how you play, if you swap of pieces or just keep a central knight, long range bishop or a file sweeping rook. If you want to be a strong player then you have to play the best move until move 70 or 80 and try not to make a mistake after that. This is the approach of the modern day Grandmaster who is a really competitve player. I have been following the ongoing Chess World Chamionship in Elista, Russia and have noticed the strong moves by both Topalov and Kramnik in their games. They both have played brilliantly in the endgame and have been able to win and draw when there have been little pieces left. I can see that they are very committed to their endgames, they know that the game is usually decided at the end. To add to that they seem to be very patient too at the table. Much of the endgame requires thinking ahead, perhaps up to 7 moves ahead if one can do that, one such situation is when there are passed pawns and you have to see ahead to see if you can deliver check when you promote to a queen, rook, bishop or knight. You have to see if the opponent can do the same thing to you as well. These days, chess endings are exciting and tend to get alot of focus in tournaments rather than the opening where people who finish their games early come and watch the top board players take each other on right until the last move. I read about endings in the Australian newspapers and there are lots of tricks worth knowing. I have eight positions here where the pawns are invovled. To be honest these foot soldiers can really make a difference in the ending.

Continue reading "Spectacular Endings - the foot soldiers"

White to Play and Win � By Mate!

nospam@example.com (Problemist) — Tue, 10 Oct 2006 03:53:00 -0400

Author: Problemist

A horrible bad bishop for black, to be sure! In a game, the easy route would be of course to capture pawns and promote � but what if, horrors of horrors, Black finds some way to sacrifice the bishop for the promoted pawn and come to a 2N vs. K position? Not likely, but again, such things happen to us all, especially in quick time controls.

Instead, white can use the impotence of the bishop and use his knights to force mate � in one line, by sacrificing it.

Continuation:

1.Ng3! threatening Ne2(#3) 1...Bg7 2.Ne2 threatening Ngf4(#2) 2...Bh6 3.Kxc6 Bg7 4.Ngf4 Bf8 [if 4...gxf4 5.exf4#] 5.Ng6#

Interestingly, removing pawns b3/b4, and white knight on g2, leads to an even quicker mate � in 4! Can you find it?

1.Nd2! threatening Nb3(#3) 1...Bg7 2.Nb3 threatening Na5(#2) 2...Bh6 3.Na5 and 4. Nxc6#. Mate on the white square again, this time from the Q-side.

This line certainly shows that in blocked positions, the N, or in this case, a set of Ns, can severely overpower a bad bishop!

A Draw A Piece Down

nospam@example.com (Problemist) — Mon, 09 Oct 2006 01:03:00 -0400

Author: Problemist

This article is the result of a training exercise by the author in determing the best ways to win or draw, down a piece, but with pawn compensation for that piece. Should readers doubt any anaylsis shown here, please feel free to contact me.

We have all experienced positions in which we are a piece down for one or more pawns, and know that the draw or win is just as much a matter of positional factors and calculation as it is the material on the board. Even a bishop for a pawn up for black, this position sits in delicate balance. Black does not win this endgame unless white falters in his attempts at combining defense and offense (the same will hold for black in some positions!). Both sides can win or lose from this initial position, but it is white to play and draw.

Continue reading "A Draw A Piece Down"

Frank Marshall, Chess Composer?

nospam@example.com (Problemist) — Sun, 08 Oct 2006 04:05:00 -0400

Author: Problemist

Many Grandmasters and World Champions have shown their skill in the problem arena, especially in those days when there was less of a chiasm between the art of the problem world and the practical world of the chessplayer. Emmanuel Lasker, Alexander Alekhine, Max Euwe, Vassily Smyslov � all have been known for at least one well-regarded composition. Alekhine, who is suspected of doctoring some of his game scores for publication in an attempt to make them appear more brilliant or finished, had perhaps the most interesting reason for not continuing in the compositional field, especially given the rumors surrounding some of his more famous annotations. In a quotation widely attributed to him, Alekhine allegedly wrote:

"I am very much in sympathy with the idea of chess composition. I would be quite happy to devise problems myself. But, the opponent, that obtrusive partner! What disappointment does he bring to a real artist in the chess business, who wants not just another win but works of lasting value."

One grandmaster who dabbled in chess problems was Frank Marshall, who showed very good promise with his first composition. Marshall's first problem appeared in the Montreal Daily Star of June 19,1894 and the solution in June 26, 1894 column. That column also noted "Marshall's problem has baffled the entire corps of Star solvers. Most chess clubs have a mascot, or at least a tender juvenile who is exhibited to strangers as the local prodigy. Mr. F.J. Marshall occupied this position in Montreal until recently, but he is beginning to bite too hard to be played with much longer. Especially as he is blossoming out as a problemist. The Star has been favored with his first composition. It is neat and highly creditable, the more so as it is as sound as a bell.�

Continue reading "Frank Marshall, Chess Composer?"

How to play Loop Chess (part 6)

nospam@example.com (King Reza) — Thu, 05 Oct 2006 04:00:00 -0400

Author: King Reza

Another example:

I�m playing White.

Messy game! Just look at my King, exposed and unprotected. Luckily my opponent doesn�t have enough material to take him.

He takes the Knight on e7 with his Rook. I sense the mate and I have enough extra pieces. So I don�t bother taking the Rook. I go straight or a mate:

Continue reading "How to play Loop Chess (part 6)"

Sicilian Daze

nospam@example.com (Servant) — Wed, 04 Oct 2006 01:10:00 -0400

Author: Servant

One day i was outside watching the clouds for inspiration perhaps for a minute or two and came up with a novel idea that was profound.

What opening can put your opponent in a spin? When can you dream of excellent moves? What is recorded in magazines and newspapers as the starting moves of choice? In chess one of the best openings for Black is the Sicilian. Currently fashionable and trendy it is also one of the most popular openings ever. The Sicilian starts of 1.e4 c5 and then White has a choice of some different moves and the game can go in any direction, with names for certain positions like a najdorf, dragon, smith gambit, closed game, fianchetto game or a scheveningen. Black after starting slowly complicates the position, then heads into a great middlegame and then reaches an ending with chances to win. The Sicilian is used by the top players in the world. They seem to enjoy it in every tournament. I use it myself whenever i get the chance and have had some great results against the strong experts. In the Sicilian you will find subtle moves, sacrifices and unusual moves. A recipe for some deep thinking and excitement. I find that the centre of the board is critical since the central squares control the battle. King safety is also a huge priority, it can be left in either corner or stay in the middle. Consider the following games where Black moves first in all of them.

Continue reading "Sicilian Daze"

How to play Loop Chess (part 5)

nospam@example.com (King Reza) — Tue, 03 Oct 2006 16:11:00 -0400

Author: King Reza

I could have mated him in another way too: First drop the Knight on f2 forcing him to take it by his Rook, and then drop a Queen on g1. But the first one looked more beautiful!

Here�s another example, this time more complicated:

Continue reading "How to play Loop Chess (part 5)"

Middlegame tactics - the ambition for more

nospam@example.com (Servant) — Mon, 02 Oct 2006 13:59:00 -0400

Author: Servant

I have dived into my collections of chess games and found some gems and even gold!. I'm rich. Well not in a monetary sense, just rich at chess.

There were many brilliant games to choose from and very instructing were most of them. Games from the world's best including Kasparov, Kramnik, Karpov, Svidler, Topalov and Anand. Not to mention great Australian players that no one has heard of. I did learn much from these and are worth revising. There is nothing so as important in chess than going into favourable tactics once a winnable strategic position has been reached. Tactics will turn up in the chess game about 99% of the time. There will be opportunities in chess where you may need to sacrifice pieces to end up with a winnable position or winnable endgame. This requires a bit of bravery and daring, especially when there are clouds hiding things in the poition. Since the middlegame is before the endgame there should be alot of thought into making a capture, checking or getting passed pawns. You should also create space for your pieces and not have them cramped. There is also opportunities to have a bishop vs knight ending where the bishop is the better piece because it can travel to more squares. Also the pawn structure has to be taken into account because doubled pawns are easy food in the ending. I like to have my knights and bishops in the middle squares d5, d4, e5, e4 and my rooks on open files. King safety is a priority too. In fact there are lots of things to look out for in the middlegame. No shortage of thinking. Here are some games that one can learn from. They are also rather enjoyable.

Continue reading "Middlegame tactics - the ambition for more"

How to play Loop Chess (part 4)

nospam@example.com (King Reza) — Sun, 01 Oct 2006 04:39:00 -0400

Author: King Reza

And now, we come to endings. Basically, an ending is a mate or a draw. I personally like it to be a mate, and a mate of my opponent�s King!

I�ll show you through some examples how mates work in Loop Chess. I�ll start from an easy mate and will continue to more complex mates.

This is the position in move number 17 of a game of mine:

As you have probably guessed, I�m playing as Black. The White King is at the corner and is blocked by Pawns and the Rook. I have many pieces to drop and I�m sure there�s a mate. For you, well, you can assume that there�s one.

Continue reading "How to play Loop Chess (part 4)"

Spectacular Endgames (Rooks)

nospam@example.com (Servant) — Sat, 30 Sep 2006 03:57:51 -0400

Author: Servant

I have for eight years been collecting and cataloging chess problems and studies that have been published in newspapers, magazines and there have been such positions in my own games. As you can imagine the collection is quite large and i need a new folder to add to this and to keep everything in. I also have a few chess books which are helpful, though even without them i can still play well. In Australia we have three main papers that have a chess column once a week. These include the Sun-Herald on Sundays, the SMH on Mondays and the Weekend Australian on Saturdays and are less than $2 each. I usually get all three of these papers and they rightly tend to be on page number 64. What i especially like are endgame compositions. These positions are easy to setup and study as well as being instructive and entertaining. They are always tactical and one piece out of place is usually a recipe for losing. Usually i find that alot of the time the rooks take part in these endings. They usually have the final say, as they want to because they spend alot of time in the corners, drinking latte's. But them latte's fire them up and then they are alert and ready for anything. As i recommend free speech i will let these rooks speak for themselves! These endings have been hand picked out of the many ones i have stored away and you probably haven't seen them before, though you may have well seasoned pattern recognition skills if you class yourself as an expert. I have included the answers but i know there are people who can solve all six without them, though it is testing as you will have to think deeply in all of these endgames. White to move in all of them.

Continue reading "Spectacular Endgames (Rooks)"

How to play Loop Chess (part 3)

nospam@example.com (King Reza) — Fri, 29 Sep 2006 03:31:00 -0400

Author: King Reza

Loop Chess games can become really hard to play, or absolutely easy to play. Look at the following example:

I�m playing as White! As you can easily see almost the whole board is white and I have an army of waiting-to-be-dropped-onto-the-board pieces. It shouldn�t surprise you that Black resigned the game at this point.

As you see the board is quite simple to understand. But there are positions that players may get �scared� looking at:

Continue reading "How to play Loop Chess (part 3)"

How to play Loop Chess (part 2)

nospam@example.com (King Reza) — Tue, 26 Sep 2006 12:00:00 -0400

Author: King Reza

Black has some options:

Moving the Queen to either e7 or c8 and putting her out of a possible pin.
Moving the Rook. This is totally out of the question because the only square black can move the Rook to, is g8. After he does that, I�ll simply take the Pawn on f7 with my Bishop and fork the King and the Rook together and win a Rook.
Blocking my Knight or Bishop from having access to f7. As you all know, Knights cannot be blocked since they can jump. So Black should really try blocking my Bishop by moving the Pawn on d6 to d5.

I think the last option is the best one. After moving the Pawn to d5, I�ll capture it with my Pawn on e4. Black cannot take my Pawn immediately by the Knight on f6 because I�ll take that too with my Bishop on c4. Instead, he can move his Bishop to g4 and threaten my Queen. This opens the way for the Black Queen to have access to square d5 too. Now, Black can take my Pawn on d5 and then my Bishop if I take the Knight as well.

Continue reading "How to play Loop Chess (part 2)"

My Chess Opening - the e4 English

nospam@example.com (Servant) — Mon, 25 Sep 2006 03:08:39 -0400

Author: Servant

I've been playing chess for more than 10 years. This is my main opening in chess with the White pieces and it usually comes as quite a suprise to my opponents who don't know it very well. Though I haven't tested it at BrainKing.com yet because I'm too busy playing the chess variants which I have discovered. Many people I know in Australia don't understand Extinction chess, Ambiguous chess and Cylinder chess, many are happy to just to play the standard chess. This has led me to play more regular chess recently and so I have studied a few openings and come up with some great starting moves that have toppled even strong players. The following game is an example of a great win against an expert player.

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How to play Loop Chess (part 1)

nospam@example.com (King Reza) — Sun, 24 Sep 2006 02:51:00 -0400

Author: King Reza

Loop Chess is a very challenging variation of Chess in which captured pieces can be returned to the Board and used as the player�s own piece. This brings to the game excellent and artistic strategies. The ability to put back the pieces onto the board makes the games always exciting and �uncertain.� A lost game in Regular Chess can sometimes be turned into a win for the losing side in Loop Chess. Players can never be sure what happens next. There are many possibilities to consider and both players must always keep their eyes and full attention to the board. If you know how to play, it�s quite easy to win. But if you don�t, well you�ll have to learn!

In Loop Chess, unlike Regular Chess, material advantage is not very important. You can even forget about a lost Queen and continue playing in hopes of a mistake in time from your opponent�s side so that you can take your Queen back by putting a pawn onto the board on the right place. Of course it doesn�t mean you can give up half your pieces and have hope for winning, but even in a very bad situation, you might still get lucky and even win.

There are two types of playing Loop Chess:

Playing the game aggressively, capturing what you can and then putting them back onto the board the next move and changing the position to your favor fast.
Playing defensively, first making sure your own King is safe from possible attacks and then slowly trying to improve your attack position.

I personally prefer the first tactic. I usually play aggressively trying to shock my opponent with all the extra pieces that are dropped to the board.

Continue reading "How to play Loop Chess (part 1)"

A simul game in the outback land

nospam@example.com (Servant) — Sat, 23 Sep 2006 03:45:00 -0400

Author: Servant

I haven't played regular chess on BrainKing yet, though i might get around to it one day. Please don't underestimate Australian chess players. We are an unusually tough bunch and will play well until the last move. Just look at our fauna, the koala, wombat and kangaroo, they have survived in our extreme weather, including cyclones, drought and bushfires. Australia is classed as a continent and we have 20 million+ people living here. Australia is a peaceful land where we get along together and say to our friends "mate" though we didn't get that word from playing chess, its still our own word. As Aussie's we can remember certain games where we have taken on high ranked opponents and won, i'm talking literally GM's, IM's and FM's. In fact we have 2 GM's, 10 IM's and 10 FM's and we are adding to this list! We do have some talented chess players and they are particulary young these days too.

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How to play Knight Relay Chess (part 4)

nospam@example.com (King Reza) — Fri, 22 Sep 2006 02:59:00 -0400

Author: King Reza

OK. As you see I am in check. Generally, there are a few ways to cancel a check:

You can move your King to a safe square if any exists.
You can capture the checking piece if possible.
You can move a piece of yours in between your King and the checking piece so that it �blocks� the check.

According to the position of the board, your choices may vary. It�s always a good idea to pay attention to the side effects of a move you�re making to cancel a check. Sometimes, choosing the wrong method of canceling a check leads you to worse problems. So choose carefully what you want to do. Here I chose to move my King to a safe square:

As you can see, right now I have a good material advantage and my position is very strong too. I have two Pawns that can easily move with the help of my three Knights and promote to precious Queens. So as you see, it was a very good idea promoting that Pawn to a Knight. The more Knights you have, the faster your pieces can move and the more possibilities of movement they have and thus the harder the game for your opponent to manage!

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Just one more chess variant?

nospam@example.com (nabla) — Thu, 21 Sep 2006 02:09:00 -0400

Author: nabla

Ambiguous Chess is a chess variant that I invented in January 2005, and which has been introduced on BrainKing in June 2006. It is nothing more than a very simple idea that anybody could have thought of, but the game seems to work very well, and unlike many inventions in the field, I have a good hope that it will last. For the moment, I enjoyed seeing it become one of the most popular chess variants on BrainKing : there are actually more than 400 games running, and 80 players are taking part to this prize tournament.

Rules of Ambiguous Chess

Instead of playing a move on the board, the player points at the square he intends to move to. The opponent then chooses which one of the possible men will indeed move to the square.
Winning is by capturing the opponent's king. It remains possible to announce checks and checkmates, but the rules do not take them into account. That means that you have the right to choose for your opponent a move that allows you to capture his king, and that a stalemate position wins for the stalemating player.
When a pawn is promoted, the promotion piece is chosen by the opponent of the pawn's owner.
Castling is forbidden.

For instance, if at move one White points to the e4 square, Black has no choice but to accept the move 1.e2-e4. But if White had pointed at the f3 square, Black could have chosen between 1.Ng1-f3 and 1.f2-f3.

Simple ideas don't necessarily arise in a simple way. Ambiguous Chess derives from a variant I invented as Unambiguous Chess, a notation-independent form of the existing but very confidential game of "Unambiguous Three-symbol Chess". In the latter game, the only possible moves are those which can be written using only three symbols in the English notation. In my Unambiguous Chess, the move must be deducible from the arrival square only : it is allowed to play a man to a square only when no other of the player's men can reach this square.

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Beginnings in Horde Chess

nospam@example.com (Problemist) — Wed, 20 Sep 2006 01:41:00 -0400

Author: Problemist

One of the variants that attracted me to BrainKing was Horde chess. There has always been something about pawns and their movements that attracted me, particularly pawn chains and big groupings of pawns. In �regular� chess, one of my favorite sacrifices for potential advantage was the sacrifice of a piece for a pawn chain. Grandmaster Gligoric wrote some articles about this in the 1970s, and one of the most famous games with a very spectacular � and speculative! � sacrifice of this sort was made by the chess artist and �World co-champion� GM Bronstein:

Bronstein,D - Rojahn,E

Moscow Olympiad 1956

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Nf6 4.Ng5 d5 5.exd5 Na5 6.d3 h6 7.Nf3 e4 8.dxe4 Nxc4 9.Qd4 Nb6 10.c4 c5 11.Qd3 Bg4 12.Nbd2 Be7 13.0�0 0�0 14.Ne5 Bh5 15.b3 Nbd7 16.Bb2 Nxe5 17.Bxe5 Nd7 18.Bc3 Bf6 19.Rae1 Bxc3 20.Qxc3 Qf6 21.e5 Qf5 22.f4 Bg6 23.Ne4 Rab8 24.Qf3 Bh7 25.g4 Qg6 26.f5 Qb6 27.Qg3 f6 28.e6 Ne5 29.h4 Kh8 30.g5 Rbc8 31.Kh1 Qd8 32.g6 Bxg6 33.fxg6 b5 34.d6 Qb6 35.d7 Nxd7 36.exd7 Rcd8 37.Nxf6 Qc6+ 38.Qg2 1�0

If that game doesn�t impress the power of the pawns, I don�t know what will!

Continue reading "Beginnings in Horde Chess"

How to play Knight Relay Chess (part 3)

nospam@example.com (King Reza) — Tue, 19 Sep 2006 01:05:00 -0400

Author: King Reza

The board a couple of moves later:

It�s the 12th move and it�s my turn. It doesn�t seem so, but my Queen is under attack by the White Bishop on d3. I moved it to a5. D6 could have been an option, but White could respond by moving his Bishop on d3 to c5 threatening my Queen again.

It�s a basic rule. Don�t waste your moves. If I had made Qd6, then White would start advancing his position and what I could do was just flee.

Continue reading "How to play Knight Relay Chess (part 3)"

How to play Knight Relay Chess (part 2)

nospam@example.com (King Reza) — Sun, 17 Sep 2006 02:51:00 -0400

Author: King Reza

I think explaining the techniques while talking about a game is more understandable than just saying do this, do that! So I�ll be pasting different parts of the game and then I�ll talk about each part.

White played 4.Be2 which seems to be a good move giving him the opportunity to castle and also giving him a Bishop + Knight on e2. However, my opponent never castled in this game!

I played 4.Qd6. Another good move would have been 4.Bd7. But I like it when I have my Queen on the board. It�s very powerful especially when accompanied by a Knight.

So as you see, I�m trying to get my pieces into the board so that I can benefit from their abilities.

Continue reading "How to play Knight Relay Chess (part 2)"

How to play Knight Relay Chess (part 1)

nospam@example.com (King Reza) — Fri, 15 Sep 2006 10:20:04 -0400

Author: King Reza

Since BrainKing.com is asking players to write articles, I thought it would be a good idea to write about Knight Relay Chess which is a very interesting variation of Chess and brings extra thinking and fun to the games. I am pretty good at playing that game and will try to share some, of course not all, of my knowledge with you who are interested in learning how to play the game and improving your skills at it.

I�ll start with the rules. Basically, Knight Relay Chess has the same rules of regular Chess, meaning that pieces move like they do in Chess, etc But when a piece is located in a square covered by a friendly Knight, meaning that Knight could move to that square if the piece weren�t there, it gets the moving abilities of a Knight as a bonus. So if that piece is a pawn, now it is a pawn plus a Knight at the same time.

So, assuming that a player has made 1.E4, if the player moves his/her Knight to C3 the next move, he/she will be having a Pawn + Knight on E4. This is true even if the player first makes 1.KC3 and then moves the pawn to E4.

There�s more to the Knights than just that. They cannot be captured. So neither can you take your opponent�s Knights nor can they take yours. Not only can�t your Knights be captured, but also they cannot capture any pieces either. The Knights don�t put the Kings in check . So you can safely say that the only thing they do, up to this step, is that they give extra moving abilities to the pieces.

It�s worth mentioning that this extra moving ability is NOT permanent. So if you move the Knight to a square that no longer covers your piece�s location, the piece loses its extra moving abilities and becomes what it originally was. This is true if you move the piece to a square not covered by a Knight too.

Now, let�s start with different strategies.

Continue reading "How to play Knight Relay Chess (part 1)"