Swedish Chess
This page contains one or more presets for playing a game online with Game Courier, an online server for playing Chess variants by correspondence.
In Swedish Chess it's possible to attain tenable and interesting middlegame positions without burying oneself in opening studies. The rules are the same as in orthodox chess except that the pawns have no initial double move. As the pawns are all located on the third rank, they can reach the fourth rank immediately anyway. In the first phase the players take turns to drop pieces on the board, either behind the pawn chain, or on a friendly pawn. In the latter case the removed friendly pawn must immediately be relocated to another empty position, that is, somewhere on the second rank. The two Bishops must be dropped on different colours. The King and Rooks are initially placed on their standard positions. They are immobile until all pieces have been dropped. After all the pieces have been dropped the play begins.In Swedish Chess the en passant capture and the pawn's double step are redundant. You should give your King a protected position by castling. You can relocate the pawns so that they protect the King. Remember that relocated pawns on the second rank have no initial double move, so it takes longer to activate such pawns. In the opening phase, the same pawn can be relocated several times, by dropping pieces on it. Keep the pawns in the centre, because center pawns are valuable.
The following preset makes a reasonably good validity check of moves. Castling is automated, but not the drop moves. When dropping a piece on your own pawn, you must not forget to relocate the removed pawn by an additional drop, separated by a semicolon. Type, for instance, "add N f3; add P f2". Pawns are automatically promoted to queen. Should you prefer another piece then you must type it manually (e.g., add N a8; capture a7). The characters used for the pieces are these: Pawn, kNight, Bishop, Rook, Queen, and King. For black, use small piece-letters. After all pieces have been dropped, the preset performs a validity check of the position.
The dropping phase is
finished. Pieceshave been placed on good squares
and pawns have been relocated to
protect the king. Now white can begin
play with d3-d4, for instance.
Swedish Chess
You can also download a Zillions implementation
here.See also my other Game Courier presets.
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By M Winther.
Web page created: 2006-06-13. Web page last updated: 2006-06-13