Chess+

Chess+ was jointly invented by Nick Bentley and Christian Freeling in late 2018 and early 2019. The invention was motivated by perceived shortcomings of Fischer Random Chess. Chess+ is intended to reduce the reliance on opening books without presenting players with randomized positions they did not choose.

Though independently invented, Chess+ is similar to Pre-Chess, with two new innovations:

Regular moves may be made as soon as the king is on the table.
The pawns mark potential squares where pieces may be entered.

Setup

The board starts with each player's pawns lined up on their second ranks and the remaining pieces "in hand". The yellow circles mark locations where pieces may be entered.

Pieces

As in orthodox Chess.

Rules

On their turn, a player must do only one of the following:

Enter one of their pieces on an empty square behind an unmoved pawn of the same color, said pawn optionally moving or capturing in the same turn. The king may not be entered into check.
Move a piece as in orthodox Chess, provided that the king has previously been entered.

Stalemate is usually a draw. However, if the mated player's king is off the table, stalemate is a loss for the mated player.

Castling is disallowed. (Since the king and rook can simply be entered in their "castled" positions, there is no use for castling.)

En passant applies as in orthodox Chess, whether the pawn to be captured double-moved on its own or in conjunction with a piece entry.

Other rules are as in orthodox Chess.

Notes

The King may not be entered any later than the eighth turn.

A player may enter a piece without moving the pawn, move away the piece, then enter another piece on the same square.

If none of a player's pawns remain on their second rank, said player may no longer enter pieces.

It is permitted (though inadvisable) to enter both bishops on the same color.

Example

The diagram shows the position after 1. Re1,e4 Rd8,d5 2. Kb1. Black cannot yet make any orthodox Chess moves, but White can. Pieces may be entered on any marked square, or on b1 once the king moves away, but not on e1 or d8 even if the rooks move away (because the pawns in front of those squares have moved).

Links

This 'user submitted' page is a collaboration between the posting user and the Chess Variant Pages. Registered contributors to the Chess Variant Pages have the ability to post their own works, subject to review and editing by the Chess Variant Pages Editorial Staff.

Author: Ola Sassersson. Inventor: Nick Bentley and Christian Freeling.
Web page created: 2020-05-19. Web page last updated: 2020-05-19

Comments

Chess+. Players choose when and where to place their pieces behind the pawns.

💡Christian Freeling wrote on Wed, May 27, 2020 09:05 AM EDT:

Hi David,

Chess+ just so happened after I had stopped inventing games and Nick became more active in the games business. It has been done from an inventor's point of view, not from a Chess player's. So it may seem more rigorous. It allows bishops to be entered on the same sub-grid because disallowing it requires an additional rule. After all, legal Chess positions are possible with bishops on the same sub-grid.

We think it works better than Fischer's brainchild but we fear that this will not represent any future majority.

David Cannon wrote on Wed, May 27, 2020 01:52 AM EDT:Excellent ★★★★★

Great idea. I have always loved Fischerrandom Chess, but I really don't like the way it gives players no control over where their pieces start. I also consider Fischer's castling rule to be cludgy and it's hard to believe that a man of his genius came up with that. Your project fixes those shortcomings.

One tweak I'd make if it were up to me is to require both players to enter ALL their pieces before making any other moves. White would enter a piece, followed by black, and they'd take it in turns to enter pieces, one at a time, until the first and eighth ranks were full. Of course, Bishops must be required to be on different coloured squares.

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