Upgrade chess
Simple idea, adding RPG-like upgrade element to chess. Perhaps, something similar is already invented, but I hope, at least element of queen and knight directions is original.
Rules
Opening position is same as in standart chess, but all pieces are at level 1 (expect for King, who don't have levels). Piece's power of movement depends on it's level. Pieces do upgrades by capturing. Level of captured piece is augmented to level of the capturer. So, when level 1 captures level 1, it upgrades to level 2, when level 1 captures level 2 or level 2 captures level 1, it upgrades to level 3, when level 2 captures level 2, it upgrades to level 4, and so on. Level 1 Rooks and Bishops moves only one square in their corresponding directions. At level 2 they can move up to 2 squares, and so on. Despite level 1 Rooks can normally move only 1 square, castling is still done as in standart chess. For Queen, it's more complicated. Level 1 Queen moves 1 square diagonally (and not orthogonally), in honour to ancestor of Queen in ancient forms of chess. At level 2 Queen can also move 1 square orthogonally, but diagonal move is not yet prolonged (so now, she moves just like King). At level 3 diagonal move is prolonged to up to 2 squares. And so with orthogonal move at level 4. And so, Queen alters prolongation of diagonal and orthogonal moves with every one level. Knights' upgrades are much like Queen's. Level 1 Knight is Betza's Crab: can jump in narow forward or wide backward directions. With level 2 Knight gets remaining standart directions. At level 3 Knight can jump twice (see Knightrider) in directions of Crab, but still only once in other directions. At level 4 Knight can make two jumps in any of his directions. And, like Queen, he alters prolongations of these directions. On 8x8-sized board movement is affected till level 7 for Rooks and Bishops, till level 14 for Queens and till level 6 for Knights. However, even after these levels pieces keep getting upgrades without changes of movement: it affects upgrades of other pieces, capturing them. Pawns always moves normally (and can make double step and en-passant), however, they have levels, and upon reaching last rank they can promote only to pieces of their levels. King don't have his own level, he always moves as usual. But when King makes captures, player must choose any of his other pieces (possibly pawn) and upgrade it instead King.Notes
Opening will be slow. But theory of exchanges should be a little more complex.
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By Daniil Frolov.
Web page created: 2014-08-23. Web page last updated: 2014-08-23