Palindromic Chess

This is an example of a game in which the ending position is the same as the starting position (just rotate the board 180 degrees at the end and you're ready for another game).

Initial Array

   +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
 8 |lr | n | b | k | q | b | n | rr|
   +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
 7 | p | p | p | p | p | p | p | p |
   +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
 6 |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |
   +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
 5 |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |
   +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
 4 |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |
   +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
 3 |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |
   +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
 2 | P | P | P | P | P | P | P | P |
   +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
 1 |RR | N | B | Q | K | B | N | LR|
   +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
     a   b   c   d   e   f   g   h

Rules

Ortho-chess rules, except:

No capturing is allowed.
All pieces must move forward (except the rooks, which may move sideways). Pawns move one square forward orthogonally or diagonally (same as the King).
A player's turn consists of two actions. The first action is for the player to move one of their own pieces. The second action is for the player to move an opponent's piece. When moving a one's own piece, the piece must move the maximum possible number of squares. A white Rook on a6 would have to move to h6 (assuming no intervening pieces on the 6th rank or on the a-file). It could not move to a7 or a8. This rule was suggested by Alexandre Muñiz. Thanks Alexandre.
RR is a Right-Handed Rook. When this rook moves sideways, it must move to the (player's) right.
LR is a Left-Handed Rook. When this rook moves sideways, it must move to the (player's) left.
There is no check or checkmate. See below for winning conditions.
Castling is not allowed.
Initial two-square move for pawns is not allowed.
If a player has no legal move, they pass their turn and play continues. This is the only condition under which a player may pass their turn.

Winning Condition

The player who makes the move such that all the pieces have exactly reversed their positions (ie. white pieces are in the initial black piece positions and vice-versa) wins the game. Or in other words, the first player to move their all their pieces to their destination squares loses (they must pass their turn until the opposing player has moved all his pieces to their destination squares)!

It is illegal to make a move that precludes the possibility of any piece of reaching its final destination square. The final destination square of a piece is the starting square of the same type of piece of the opposing player (eg. White's c1 bishop must end up on f8 -- therefore it would be illegal for white to move the c1 bishop to a5).

Note that the destination square of a piece is the starting square of the same type of opponent's piece. So the pawn on a2 has a destination of any of the square on the 7th rank. Right- and Left-handed Rooks are considered to be different types.

Notes

Variations:

First player to move their pieces to their destination squares wins.
Roll a d6 to determine which piece players must move (1=any piece, 2=pawn, 3=rook, 4=bishop, 5=knight, 6=queen or king). If player can't move the piece specified by the roll, then they may move any piece.

Other properties of this game:

It has a maximium number of moves:
Each rook takes a maximum of 14 moves to reach its ending square. Each Bishop takes a maximum of 7 moves to reach its ending square. The King and Queen each take a maximum of 7 moves to reach their ending squares. The pawns each take a maximum of 5 moves to reach their ending squares. Each Knight takes at most 5 moves to reach its ending square.
So, 2x14 + 2x7 + 2x7 + 8x5 + 2x5 = 106 / 2 = 53 turns maximum.
It cannot end in a draw.
Note that this game is not truly a 'palindrome' in that it isn't the same game played forwards as backwards. Any such game would only be interesting for the first half of the game as all the moves of the second half would be forced!

Written by David Howe.

WWW page created: January 26, 2000. Last modified: January 31, 2000.

Comments

Palindromic Chess. Play until the position on the board is the reversed of the starting postion. (8x8, Cells: 64)

Tomas Forsman wrote on Mon, May 27, 2002 02:10 PM EDT:

What I found out when trying to play this game was that you were right. It
isn't very playable. The strategy involved aren't very complex and thus the
player that doesn't start has a tremendous advantage. The only strategy you
have, besides from moving slow, is to try to force the opponent to make a
move that leaves you with a pass. This ain't much of a strategy either.
Still, it was an interesting read and play.

Tomas

💡📝David Howe wrote on Mon, May 27, 2002 10:59 AM EDT:

Thanks for the feedback Tomas. I wouldn't bother trying to play this game -- it is not very playable. A game that's like this one, but more playable is <a href='../diffobjective.dir/interchange.html'>Interchange Chess</a>. <p>I used left- and right-handed rooks in the game to guarantee it would be quaranteed to end in a certain number of moves. Using such rooks is not strictly necessary though. <p>You're right about spotting illegal moves -- they're usually discovered 2 or 3 moves down the line. Too annoying. Anyway, this game was more of an exercise in applying an abstract idea to chess than of creating a playable game.

Tomas Forsman wrote on Mon, May 27, 2002 09:33 AM EDT:Good ★★★★

I've gone through the rules of this game and I only found a few things I
wasn't comfortable with.
First I don't agree with the different types of Rooks. Letting them go in
both directions would add a lot of strategy to the game but I guess the
reason for it is to make it as straight forward as possible.
The second thing I don't like is to forbid the players to make a move that
means they can not end up on the right square.
What if they don't see it?
Another 'fix' for this problem is that a player loose if the other catches
him making such a move or if in the end your pieces are unable to end up in
the right position.
This would however create a situation for draw. If both players have made
such a move and discovers it at the same time.

These are only thoughts and I haven't tried them out in a game yet.

Regards

Tomas Forsman

Number of ratings: 1, Average rating: Good, Number of comments: 3