What was new: Jan - Mar 2000

• Week of March 26 - April 1, 2000:
  • ShatraDev. A Windows program (95/98/NT) that plays Shatra. Program written by Francis Monkman.
  • The central squares. 3d chess variant where all three levels share their central squares. By João Pedro Neto. Submission to the contest to design a chess variant on a board with 100 squares.
  • Black Hole Chess. Variant on board with 100 squares with hole in middle of board, combination pieces and hiding squares for kings. By David Short. Submission to the contest to design a chess variant on a board with 100 squares.
  • Files for Zillions-of-games:
    • ZRF-file for Jumping Chess. Pieces capture by jumping. Board has extra "edge squares" making it 10x10. By Peter Aronson.
    • The central square. ZRF-file. By João Pedro Neto.
    • Marek14.zip. Zillions of Games implementations for a large number of chess variants. By Marek14.
  • Recognized chess variant this week:
    • Pocket Knight. Players have a knight that can be dropped on the board instead of making a normal move. Description. Review.
• Week of March 19 - March 25, 2000:
  • Contest to design a chess variant on a board with 100 squares. Participate before June 30, 2000.
  • Endgame statistics for three piece endgames. By Dave McCooey. Dave has done extensive computer analysis for all endgames on an 8 by 8 chessboard with the two kings, and three additional pieces, taken from the set of usual pieces (except pawns) and nine fairy pieces.
  • Wormhole Chess. When a piece leaves a square, it `folds' together. By Fergus Duniho. Entry in the 32-Turn Challenge. Also with ZRF-file, to play this game with Zillions-of-Games.
  • True King. A Grand Chess variant. By Roxy Wu.
  • Chess 3D applet. This allows two humans using the same computer to play Chess 3D. By Marius Soska.
  • Al-ces. Variant on 10 by 10 board with 30 pieces per player. By Köksal Karakus. Submission to the contest to design a chess variant on a board with 100 squares.
  • ZRF-file for Al-ces. Play this game with the Zillions of Games program.
  • New sample game for Doubles Chess, by David Short. (Chess variant with 16 by 8 board.)
  • Recognized chess variants this week:
    • Chessapeak Challenge. Commercial 4-player variant. Description, photo's and links. Review.
    • Minishogi. Variant of Shogi on 5 by 5 board. Description. Review. (Now with an animated game, by Koksal Karakus.

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• Week of March 12 - March 18, 2000:
  • Historic painting of Courier chess game.
  • Wall Chess. Orthochess with additional untakable wall pieces. By Jarrod Antinoro and William Kenney.
  • The Knightliest Black Hole. Knighted pieces on a constantly diminishing board. By João Pedro Neto. Entry in the 32-Turn Challenge.
  • EDILÁN. They have available facsimile copies of King Alfonso X's book of Chess, along with facsimiles of many other remarkable medieval codices. (Link.)
  • Animated sample game for Toto40.
  • Three Fat Brothers Chess. On a 9x9 board with 3 royal pieces. By S. Sirotkin. Also with ZRF-file, for playing this game with Zillions of games.
  • Recognized chess variants this week:
    • Smess. Commercial chess-like game from the 1970's. Description of game. Review.
    • Changgi. Korean chess. Description and links. Review.
• Week of March 5 - March 11, 2000:
  • Our new contest: design a chess variant which lasts at most 32 turns.
  • Changgi: Korean Chess. The variant of chess played in Korea. Text by Jean-Louis Cazaux.
  • A Glossary of Basic Chess Variant Terms. A core glossary of terms used in the Chess Variant world. By John William Brown.
  • Hyperspace Chess. When moving more than one square, pieces travel some turns in hyperspace before arriving at their destination. By Joao Pedro Neto.
  • Global Chess. A chess game played on a board composed of two rotating disks. Page written by Robert LeRoy.
  • Vortex Chess. Ortho-chess with the inclusion of a new piece: the Portal. By Robert LeRoy.
  • Quantum Mechanics and Chess. Some ideas and variants related to Quantum Mechanics. By João Pedro Neto and others.
  • Traitor Chess. Some of your pieces are traitors and can suddenly be controlled by your opponent. By Joao Pedro Neto. New variants added by Fergus Duniho.
  • Ultima Pieces. An Illustrated Guide showing how Ultima pieces move and capture. By David Howe.
  • Recognized chess variants this week:
    • Los Alamos Chess. First chesslike game played by computer was on 6 by 6 board. Description. Review.
    • Flip Chess. Variant on small board where pieces can flip and change type. Description. Review.
• Week of February 27 - March 4, 2000:
  • Ploy. Strategic Game of Maneuver and Capture, 3M Company - 1970. Page by Dennis Matheson.
  • Feudal. The Game of Siege and Conquest, 3M Company - 1967. Page by Dennis Matheson.
  • Recognized chess variants this week:
    • Fischer's Randomized Chess. Start with a random made opening setup. Description and links. Review.
    • Ultima. Abbott's strategic game that can be played with a orthodox chess set. Description. Review.
• Week of February 20 - February 26, 2000:
  • Welcome to new editor: Olivier Ronat. His special area will be: (fairy) chess problems.
  • Chess'3. Variant on 10 by 10 board with pieces that can move like queen or knight but only defend.
  • Chess grandmaster Leko on Fischer Random Chess.
  • Das Trojanische Spiel. Commercial German chess variant, where pieces can stand on top of each other. (Link.)
  • Herd. Experimental variant with jumping pieces on 7 by 7 board. By S. Sirotkin.
  • Drop Chess. Players can select from nine chess armies on an 8x8 or 9x9 board. By Key McKinnis.
  • Alice Raumschach. Combining the Raumschach and Alice chess variants. By Robert Price.
  • ZRF-file for Raumschach, and Alice Raumschach. File for Zillions of Games. By Robert Price.
  • New feature: Recognized chess variants. What are considered to be the `best chess variants'? This new section is intended to let readers find easier some of the most interesting chess variants on the site.
  • Interchange Chess. The object of this game is to get as many of your own pieces to their destination squares (on the other side of the board) as possible. Invented by David Howe, Fergus Duniho, and Alexandre Muniz.
  • Primitive Chess. Short-range major pieces and no pawns, but a piece like an apprentice for each major piece. By Köksal Karakus.
  • Checkmate Sliding puzzle. Slide squares in this puzzle such that the black king becomes mated.
  • H-chess. New almost one dimensional chess variant by S. Sitkorin.
• Week of February 13 - February 19, 2000:
  • January 2000 Letterbox. A Novel chess variant, and an approach to creating a Taxonomy of Chess Variants.
  • Animated sample game for Jumping Chess.
  • The Eight Queens puzzle. Classic problem: put eight queens on the chessboard such that they do not attack each other.
  • KriegLeague. Internet Kriegspiel players club, for playing Kriegspiel on chess server ICC. (Link.)
  • Additional ordering information on Guide des échecs exotiques et insolites, the new French book on chess variants by Jean-Louis Cazaux.
  • Bishops Moving puzzle. Puzzle to move bishops across the board without attacking each other, as appearing in computer game The 7th Guest.
• Week of February 6 - February 12, 2000:
  • Chess II. Two extra files with two additional pieces (princes) on each side. By Jesse A. Obligacion.
  • Jumping Chess. Pieces capture by jumping. Board has extra "edge squares" making it 10x10. By Peter Aronson.
  • Narrowness. Board filled with pawns and two kings per player. By S. Sirotkin.
  • Russian Progressive Chess. Progressive chess variants where one occasionally moves a piece of the opponent. By S. Sirotkin.
  • Ice Age Chess. Every 20th move, the board freezes and ice cubes appear on almost every empty square. By Köksal Karakus.
  • Cancellation Rules. Capturing results in left-over pieces based on the difference in point values of the two pieces. By Jeff Zeitlin.
  • Home page of Jean-Louis Cazaux, with information on his newly appearing book: Guide des échecs exotiques et insolites.
  • Pixelpusher vs CPP1. Moves of a game between the two weakest chess programs in the world. Contributed by Folkert van Heusden.
  • Mutators. Article written by João Pedro Neto discussing a certain class of rules that create new chess games by applying them to existing chess games.
  • Das Spiele-Archiv: Feudal. German webpage on Feudal. (Link.)
  • Turkish Chess. 8x10 board with different combination pieces, Vao and Pao. By Köksal Karakus.
  • Giant Chess. 16x16 board with the same pieces as Turkish Chess, but also the "Dev" piece which takes up four squares. By Köksal Karakus.
  • Greek Progressive Chess. Play at most one move more than your opponent in his last turn. Game suggested by Kostas Prentos.
  • Chess Adventurer. Chess font with distinguished bishop, by Armando Hernandez Marroquin from Mexico.
  • Transpose Chess. Board is turned 90 degrees. By Köksal Karakus.
• Week of January 29 - February 5, 2000:
  • Chaughts. A mixture of chess and international draughts, by Mark Hedden.
  • Elena Chess. Chess on 5 by 6 board. By S. Sirotkin.
  • Accidentally, the wrong webpage was last weekend used for our home page. Apologies for the confusion! (HB).
  • Just a funny board with 40 squares. By Claude Chaunier.
  • Perfect Chess. On 8 by 8 board with combination pieces. By Köksal Karakus.
  • Chess (Variant) Graphics by Jean-Louis Cazaux.
  • Portuguese Progressive Chess. Progressive chess variant where you move each piece at most once. By Joao Pedro Neto.
  • Traitor Chess. Some of your pieces are traitors and can suddenly be controlled by your opponent. By Joao Pedro Neto.
  • UTChess, or Unreal Tournament Chess. Chess variants with a different objective, inspired by the multiplayer computer game Unreal Tournament. By Joao Pedro Neto.
  • Two new awards for the Chess Variant Pages. The Internet Guide Award from the website of the Encyclopedia Britannica.
• Week of January 22 - January 28, 2000:
  • Cannon Shogi ZRF, and Cannon Chess ZRF. Zillions of Games implementations of Cannon Shogi and Cannon Chess, by Steve Evans.
  • A Western Xiangqi Board. Different way of visualizing Xiangqi which may be easier for people knowing chess. By Köksal Karakus.
  • Chess Pool. Game played on a pool table, inspired by chess. By Robert Price.
  • Chesseract ZRF. Zillions of Games implementations of Chesseract. By Robert Price.
  • Tape Chess and other `almost one dimensional chess variants'. By Sergey Sirotkin.
  • Terror Chess. Variant on 11 by 11 board with combination pieces. By Brian Wong. Also available: ZRF-file for Terror Chess: file for playing the game with Zillions of Games.
  • Palindromic Chess. A novelty variant in which the ending position is identical to the starting position. By David Howe.
  • Shatra ZRF. An ancient chess variant, from Altai, an area in Russia. The game has also elements from draughts, and has a board with a special shape. (Revision of Zillions of Games file.)
• Week of January 15 - January 21, 2000:
  • Courier Chess ZRF. Zillions of Games implementation of Courier Chess implemented by Francis Monkman. Link. Zillions implementation by Francis Monkman.
  • Chromopolis. `Almost' colorbound pieces on a cylindrical board of 40 squares. By Alexandre Owen Muniz. Submission to the contest to design a chess variant on a board with 40 squares.
  • Eric's 40-square Fiasco! Game on 5 by 8 board with three pieces that start in reserve. By Eric Richardson. Submission to the contest to design a chess variant on a board with 40 squares.
  • Sveschky. 16 identical pieces per player whose moves are determined by a die. By Sergey Sirotkin.
  • Hans 40 Gift Chess. Pieces are digits or letters and move like their form on 5 by 8 board. By Köksal Karakus. Submission to the contest to design a chess variant on a board with 40 squares.
  • Timurs Chess ZRF. Francis Monkman has created an optimized version that runs 7.5 times faster! The rules file is called TimursChessX5.zrf.
  • New links for Giveaway Chess.
  • Besiege Chess. Double height chess board, where black is surrounded by white. By Köksal Karakus.
  • Edge Chess. Pieces can stand on the edges of squares. (Link.)
  • Cannon Shogi and Cannon Chess. Played on a 9x9 Shogi board, feature various types of 'Cannon' pieces. By Peter Michaelsen.
  • Chess on Stamps. Extensive website with many pictures of stamps with a chess motive, by Colin Rose. (Link.)
  • Our current advertisement policy. What do you think?
• Week of January 8 - January 14, 2000:
  • Review of Popular Chess Variants by David Pritchard. Text of Hans Bodlaender.
  • Interview with David Pritchard, author of the Encyclopedia of Chess Variants and other books.
  • December 1999 Letterbox.
  • Cuarenta. Played only of the light-colored squares of a 9 by 9 board. By J. Mark Thompson.
  • Chess Equalizer Dice. Photo's of dice with chess symbols.
  • Solutions and outcome for the Kriegspiel problem solving competition. Winner: O. Ronat. 2nd place: D. Carey.
• Week of January 1 - January 7, 2000:
  • Happy 2000!
  • Happy 5th Birthday to the Chess Variant Pages!!
  • Voting results for the 1999 Large Variant Contest. No official winner, but congratulations to Nathan McDonald, Daniel C. Macdonald, John William Brown and Jim Aikin.
  • We had over 10 million hits in total!
  • IO Chess. Variant on 16 by 16 board with many pieces. By Mark Hedden.
  • Krieg. Two player game on a four-by-four board. Article by Jeff Zeitlin.
  • Strange Chess. A large (12x12) chess variant, where, in the author's words 'many of the pieces use the board or interact with other pieces in a way differently from those in regular Chess'. By Mark E Hedden.
  • Donkan. Game with three pieces per player where you can win by moving the king to a castle. (Link.)
  • Proto-Chaturanga. A seminal so-called "indo-persian" game with only King and Pawns.
  • Proto-Xiang-Qi. A seminal so-called "chinese" game with the minimal configuration. By Jean-Louis Cazaux.

• Index to older `whatsnew' files.