Separate

In November of 1999, Brian Wong wrote to us:

Hello, and thanks for work you put in to create this great site!

I have an idea for chess variant, which I call "Separate". This uses standard chess board, pieces and all the standard rules, except that castling is not allowed.

[The letter continues...]

The idea here is that the Queens each start trapped behind enemy lines. Initially, the Queens cannot get out, but neither can they be taken. This adds a lot of tension to the start of the game, and gives each side interesting problems to solve. Opening theory for this setup should be interesting.

It will be noted that White has two white square bishops, and Black has two black square bishops. This was necessary to ensure that the trapped queen cannot be too easily captured, which would give White, with first move, too much of an advantage.

I have tested this by playing against computer, and it seems to be a quite even game, with a small advantage to White, no larger than in normal chess hopefully. I would be interested if anyone wants to try a game with me, and I will be contacting AFICS and MEWIS to see if I can convince someone to create a wild category for it.

This game was inspired by the wonderful material at your site. I have just purchased Zillions after reading your review, and I can't wait until it ships and I can start working on some of the other game ideas I have!

Brian Wong