Jianying Ji wrote on Sun, May 19, 2002 05:16 PM UTC:
I have been studying the advices in this thread and examining some of
my ideas along this line. The following is what I have developed so far:
Pawnless Chess
-by Jianying Ji
Introduction:
This variant is inspired these primary sources:
1: Kevin Maroney's Ur Chess
2: Ralph Betza's Halfling Chess
One of the main motivations of this variant is similar to that of Ur Chess
in that I was looking for a 'simplified' variant of chess. As I read Ur
chess I saw that many of the fiddly rules he was trying to change concerned
pawns, so it seemed natural to me to dispense with pawns alltogether. But
that led to an immediate problem, which is with the major pieces of FIDE
facing each other the opening usually end up with a lot of exchanges and
not many pieces on the board after the exchanges end. To combat this, the
pieces needs to be weakened and captured pieces recycled. So I used
halfling chess to weaken the pieces, and added the capture return rule to
recycle the pieces. I changed the knight to halfling Knightrider to
strengthen the army a bit so that it won't be too slow. The details
follows:
Board and Setup:
Use standard chess board and setup with the pawns removed
r n b q k b n r
* * * * * * * *
* * * * * * * *
* * * * * * * *
* * * * * * * *
* * * * * * * *
* * * * * * * *
R N B Q K B N R
Rules:
1. All pieces move as they do in halfling chess, except the knight,
which becomes a halfling knightrider.
Motivation: To weaken the pieces so the opening will be more strategic,
rather than tactical. As Peter Aaronson suggested and Ralph Betza showed.
2. A captured piece is returned to the owner, who is to put it back on
its starting rank. It is the owner's choice, which open square to put
the returned piece on. If the starting rank is fully occupied then
the captured piece is discarded.
Motivation: Since the ratio of pieces to squares is so low, to start
with, this rule will keep more pieces in play longer, for a more
tactical and longer endgame.
3. No repetition of a previous board position
Motivation: Super-Ko rule is adopted to reduce draws.
Object:
Checkmate or stalemate the opponent
Motivation: Stalemating the opponent is included as a winning condition
to reduce draws.
Notation:
R a1 x a5 [a8]
piece source capture destination drop location
piece: name of the piece
source: starting square
capture: x if capture occured, - if non-capturing move.
destination: ending square
drop location: the location to which the captured piece is dropped
Can be abbreviated if no ambiguity arises.
Remember, if capture occurs, drop location must be specified.
Comments:
Shortest fool's mate is 2.5 moves, which is comparable to FIDE,
with the added benefit of being more 'foolish'.
Tempo is most important in this game. Losing tempo can be fatal.
It is even more important than safety of specific pieces. Since
pieces are recycled.
I have done some playtesting but I would welcome more. And any
more suggestions!
