Check out Balbo's Chess, our featured variant for October, 2024.

This page is written by the game's inventor, João Neto.

Introducing Economy in CV's?

Economy : "The system by which country's money and goods are produced and used."

Money? Goods? Where to insert them in CV's? For money, we will use Betza's zorkmid currency. For goods, at least some good candidates are the pieces and the available moves in each turn. Of course, if you are in a capitalist mood, you can use your imagination to create and sell new goods.

I leave here some notions and concepts until many goods things - I hope - are created from them!
 

There are some variants where you can keep some of your moves, in order to use them later (eg, Progressive Piggy Back).

Why not introduce the symmetric concept? Loans!

Loaning in Marseille
 

  1. The Marsellais Chess rules apply, except:
  2. A player can buy an extra move, but it's mandatory to pay 2 moves (high loaning rates!) until the end of the next three turns. There is no obligation to pay the 2 moves at the same turn.

 
Loaning in PieceLand
 

  1. All FIDE rules apply except in the following:
  2. A player can buy an extra unit (do not waste his turn), and must put it on the board on the next turn in any empty square (and waste his turn). However he must pay it in the next three moves.
  3. The way to pay is to remove a more powerful piece (pawn<knight<bishop<rook<queen).
  4. If a player cannot pay the piece, he looses.
  5. You cannot checkmate if you have some loan

 

note: rule 3 and 4 implies that you cannot buy a queen.  back to index

 

Of course, money is always important in a complex social system. Betza made a game using this concept, csipgs chess. Here goes another try:

Zorkmiding the Board
 

  1. All FIDE rules apply except in the following:
  2. In the beggining, each player has 120 zorkmids.
  3. A player can buy some extra temporary powers to his pieces (see the cost list). However, the player must tell the opponent one move before, that he is probably going to buy a certain power to a certain piece.
  4. If the warning is sent, there is no obligation to perform it (so you can make bluff), but you cannot buy a power without a warning. However, if the player bluffs, he cannot buy a power for 3 turns.
  5. Cost list: king move = 15 zkd; knight move = 15 zkd; bishop move = 20 zkd; rook move = 40 zkd; queen move = 60 zkd.

 

variants: changing the initial zkd value, change the cost list (add powers, change values, ...)
 

back to index

 

Money can be seen as having two functions - as a mean of exchanging and as a mean of saving. If you keep money in a bank, you will have a "reward" for letting your savings circulate once again in the economy, that reward is called interest.

The interest of some pieces
 

  1. All FIDE rules apply except in the following:
  2. A player can remove a piece from the board and save it in the Bank of Variantstown. After 10 turns, he can put the piece back in the same square (must be empty). But the piece is promoted using the order: pawn>knight=bishop>rook>queen

 
The interest of some moves
 

  1. All FIDE rules apply except in the following:
  2. A player can skip a move from the board and save it in the Bank of Variantstown. After 10 turns, he will have two extra moves to play whenever he chooses.
  3. opcional: A player cannot have more than 4 moves in the Bank.
  4. opcional: It is not possible to accumulate interests, ie, keep those two moves in the bank, to transform them into 4 moves, ...

 

back to index

Unemployment is also an important concept in economic analysis. How can we insert it in a CV?

Do you want a job?
 

  1. All FIDE rules apply except in the following:
  2. In the beggining, each player has 120 zorkmids, and for each turn each player gets 10 extra zorkmids.
  3. Each player only owns the King, the Queen and his 8 pawns. All other pieces are neutral.
  4. In the beggining of each turn, White and Black offer jobs to some neutral pieces. If both players want the same piece, they must auction until one of them offers the higher salary. However, if the offer is equal, the piece goes to the player with the same color.
  5. After the offer phase, all salaries must be payed in each turn. If that does not happen to some piece, it becomes neutral again.
  6. A promoted piece does not become neutral.

 

back to index

When a single company (or a government) gets the control of all or most of a business activity, so that other organizations cannot easily compete with them, we have a monopoly.

This horse business is mine!
 

  1. All FIDE rules apply except in the following:
  2. White control the 4 knigths, Black control the 4 bishops.

More frequent is the oligopoly, where there is a control by an association of a small group of companies.

 

Taking turns
 

  1. All FIDE rules apply except in the following:
  2. In odd (even) turns, White (Black) controls the 4 rooks.
  3. The ko rule: A player cannot repeat the previous turn board position.

 

back to index

Another known concept is inflation, ie, the average rate at which prices increase.
 
Hard Times
 

  1. All Do you want a job? rules apply except in the following:
  2. Every 3 turns, the salaries increase 10%

 
When inflation becomes negative, we call it deflation.
 
Great Expectations
 

  1. All Do you want a job? rules apply except in the following:
  2. Every 3 turns, the salaries decrease 10%

 

back to index

I talk to Ralph Betza about this, and he sent some nice ideas:
 

Traditional equities for cash: I think that right now the price of Knight moves is a little low, so I'll buy one and keep it in reserve....

 

Futures Market, or Selling short: I think Bishop moves are overpriced, so I'll sell one that I don't have and buy it back later when the price drops.

 

Derivatives: I own a Rook move, which is currently worth 1 zorkmid. For 0.05 zorkmids I will sell you a contract that allows you to buy my Knight move for 1.05 zorkmids any time within the next 10 moves. If the price goes up to more than 1.2, you will profit.

 
So, the next step must be the stock market!
 
What are the main concepts that we can use? The first one is the share (or stock), ie, one unit of ownership of a company. Since we do not have companies here, just pieces and stuff related, can we see a piece as a companie? What would mean if a player owns 75% of a black bishop??? In that case, you could adquire a piece with 51% of its shares? Time to make a portfolio (ie, a combined holding of many kinds of financial securities)!

Making a portfolio
 

  1. All FIDE rules apply except in the following:
  2. In the beggining, each player has 120 zorkmids, and for each four turns each player gets 10 extra zorkmids.
  3. Each player only owns the King, the Queen and his 8 pawns.
  4. Each other piece is divided in shares. The knight has 4 shares, the bishop has 8 shares and the rook has also 8 shares. Each share costs 10 zorkmids
  5. Knight: If a player have 25% of the shares of a knight of his color, he may use its forward-forward movements. With 50%, he may use all forward movements. With 75%, he may also use the lateral backward movements. With 100%, he may use all the knight mobility. If the knight is of the opposite color, the set of movements is reversed.
  6. Bishop and Rook: For each share, the player can move one square in the piece typical direction.

 

back to index

Another interesting concept is the option. Here is part of the definition that I found at http://www.lyonsrange.com/cse/info1.htm.
 

The right of choice [snip] to buy or sell a particular commodity or stock or currency at a particular future date at a particular price, called the exercise price. The buyer of an option is not obliged to buy or sell at the exercise price; he will do so only if it suits him. [snip] Options protect an investor from unfavourable fluctuations in price.
 

From the same source, here is the definition of selling short:
 

Sale of shares, which he doesn't possess, by a spectacular. He usually borrows the shares from his stockbroker, promising to replace them at a future date, hoping that the price will fall by then. If the price falls, he buys the shares at the lower rate, and makes a profit on the difference. If the price has risen on the other hand, he has to buy the shares at the higher price, and sustains a loss.
 

As somebody said:  "A thing is worth what people will pay; and people will pay what they think it is worth."

To introduce these ideas, there must be a way to give a dynamical value for each resource in question. What are they?
 

A question remains! How to do it? One possibility lies on:

The CV Index
 

  1. All FIDE rules apply except in the following:
  2. In the beggining, each player has 60 zorkmids and an extra of 10 zkd for each 3 turns. All calculations are round to 2 decimal places.
  3. The stock market consists on the following share types:
    1. WA (BA) - White (Black) Army Shares
    2. WQ (BQ) - White (Black) Queen Shares
    3. WR (BR) - White (Black) Rook Shares
    4. WB (BB) - White (Black) Bishop Shares
    5. WN (BN) - White (Black) Knight Shares
    6. Wp (Bp) - White (Black) Pawn Shares
  4. A player can buy/sell to the Bank of Variantstown, one or more of the following items:
    1. Pieces (not pawns)
    2. Temporary Powers
    3. Moves
    4. Shares
  5. Pieces/Powers
    1. Price of pieces: Queen (90 zkd), Rook (50 zkd), Bishop (30 zkd), Knight (15 zkd), multiplied by its actual share value
    2. Price of Temporary Power: 40% of the entire piece price
    3. These are buying prices. If a player wants to sell, he must give 10% to the bank (Eg, to sell a Black Rook, a player only gets 90*BR zkd).
    4. If a player buys a piece, he can only drop it on the next turn, and must put it on one of the initial squares for that piece (Eg, a Black Rook must start at a8 or h8). However, the player is not oblidged to drop it in the next run, he can keep the piece in reserve.
    5. If a player buys a temporary power, he can only use it three turns after, but he must assign it immediatly to a given piece (Eg, If at turn 10, White buys a bishop power and assign it to a knight, then that knight can use one bishop move, but only after turn 12).
    6. Every move must produce a legal FIDE position! (Eg, if you have 8 pawns and 1 queen, you cannot buy another queen)
  6. Moves
    1. Buying price: 80 zkd
    2. Selling price: 40 zkd
  7. Shares
    1. Price of Share: The actual price stated at the stock market. The initial value is 1 zkd for each share type. If a share drops below value 0, all shares of that type are eliminated.
    2. To sell a share, the player must also give 10% of its value to the bank.
  8. Stock Market Changes -  Symbol '*' should represent W(hite) or B(lack). Letter 'x' stands for a non-pawn piece (ie, Q, R, B or N), and 'p' for pawns. (There are many possible rules. Here are some)
    1. Piece of army * checks => +0.2 for share *A, -0.2 for the other army share
    2. Piece *x makes a fork => +0.05 *x
    3. Pawn *p makes a fork => +0.25 *p
    4. Piece *x captures Q => +0.2 *A, +0.5 *x   (+1 *p if it's a pawn)
    5. Piece *x captures R => +0.1 *A, +0.3 *x   (+0.6 *p if it's a pawn)
    6. Piece *x captures B => +0.05 *A, +0.2 *x   (+0.4 *p if it's a pawn)
    7. Piece *x captures N => +0.05 *A, +0.15 *x   (+0.3 *p if it's a pawn)
    8. Two *p in the same column => -0.1 *A
    9. Three *p in the same column => -0.2 *A
    10. Four *p in the same column => -0.3 *A
    11. *p promotion => +0.5 *p
    12. Wp (Bp) in the 7th (2nd) rank => +0.2 Wp (Bp)
    13. Wp (Bp) in the 6th (3rd) rank => +0.05 Wp (Bp)
    14. Two White (Black) Rooks in the 7th (2nd) rank => +0.2 WA (BA)
    15. Piece *x is bought => +0.2 *x
    16. Piece *x is sold => -0.2 *x
    17. Piece *x is captured => -0.3 *x
    18. Pawn *p is captured => -0.1 *p
    19. Power x is bought => +0.05 *x
    20. Power x is sold => -0.05 *x
  9. Futures and Options
    1. Futures: The player get a piece, and just buy it three turns later at the share cost on that moment.
    2. Options: The player buys an option to buy a certain piece/power three turns after, at the present turn cost (however it is not mandatory, that's why it is an option). Piece option cost: 1 zkd. Power option cost: 0.4 zkd.
  10.  Game Phase:
    1. White sell, buy, assign temporary powers (3 orders at most)
    2. Black sell, buy, assign temporary powers (3 orders at most)
    3. White move/capture/drop Piece
    4. Black move/capture/drop Piece
    5. Stock market changes on the turn

back to index back to top

Written by Joao Pedro Neto. Copied from Joao's website to the Chess Variant Pages with permission.
WWW page created: May 27, 1999.