Modern Prime Ministers Random Chess
Modern Prime Ministers Random Chess (PMRC) is a new 9x8 variant inspired by Gabriel Vicente Maura's 1968 Modern Chess (9 columns, reverse symmetry, symmetric long castling (O-O-O) to either side, an extra pawn, the Prime Minister [B+N]) with the some random concepts & the castling formula from Fischer Random Chess (FRC), but à la "Capablanca"! (on a board with the same number of ranks (8) as Ortodox Chess, but with more files (in this case 9) to accomodate the extra pieces [the Prime Ministers]).
Modern Random Chess (MRC) is a merge of concepts from Gabriel Vicente Maura's 1968 Modern Chess (9x9 setup, Reverse Symmetryreverse symmetry, symmetric castling to either side, an extra pawn, the Prime Minister (B+N) and a Bishop Adjustment Rule) with some random concepts & the castling formula from Fischer Random Chess (FRC).
Setup
Fischer Random setup of the pieces: symmetrical layout accross the board, with the restriction that Bishops start on opposite colors, and the King be placed somewhere between the Rooks to allow for the modified castling rule. Pawns go on each player's 2nd rank.There are 8,400 possible starting positions!
The 9x8 board has dark squares at the corners on one of the 9-squares sides, and light squares on the other 9-squares side. It is irrelevant which side (White or Black) is playing with dark or light squares on their side.
You can play 9x8 Prime Ministers Random Chess on a 10x8 board (i.e. Capablanca Chess board) by covering the squares on the 'a' or 'i'-file; or on a 9x9 board (i.e. Modern Chess board) by covering the squares on the 1st or 9th rank.
Pieces
Orthodox Chess pieces are used, plus a Prime Minister (Bishop+Knight) and a 9th Pawn per side.
Practical Value of the Pieces (adjusted to an 8x8 board)
- Queen - 9 points
- Minister - 8 points
- Rook - 5 points
- Bishop - 3 points
- Knight - 3 points
- Pawn - 1 points
Gabriel Vicente Maura's Prime Minister (from his book Mathematical Thesis of Modern Chess):
Kings and their Prime Ministers
Homemade Prime Ministers
Knight crowned by small Bishop, Bishop crowned with small Knight, and a crownless King.
The Prime Minister is the only piece that is able to give a checkmate on it's own. Sample Prime Minister's checkmates:
Rules
Most Orthodox Chess rules apply, including the objective of the game, the way pieces move and capture, en passant, check, checkmate, and the various draw situations (i.e. stalemate, insufficient mating material, threefold repetition, 50-move rule). Pawns may promote to a Queen, Minister, Rook, Bishop or Knight. The modified Castling rules are below.Castling
The PMRC castling
rules are based in the Fischer Random Chess rules.
In Prime Ministers Random Chess, depending on the pre-castling position on the castling King and Rook, the castling manoeuvre is performed by one of these four methods:
- Double-move castling: By on one turn making a move with the king and a move with the rook.
- Transposition castling: By transposing the position of the king and the rook.
- King-move-only castling: By making only a move with the king.
- Rook-move-only castling: By making only a move with the rook.
After castling, the rook and king's final positions are exactly the same positions as they would be in Maura’s Modern Chess. Thus, after c-castling (notated as O-O-Oc), the King is on the c-square (c1 for White and c9 for Black) and the Rook is on the d-square (d1 for White and d9 for Black). After g-castling (notated as O-O-Og), the King is on the g-square (g1 for White and g9 for Black) and the Rook is on the f-square (f1 for White and f9 for Black).
This table shows where the King and Rook end up and the notation for each type of castling.
| White castles a-side | c-castling | O-O-Oc | Kc1, Rd1 |
|---|---|---|---|
| White castles i-side | g-castling | O-O-Og | Kg1, Rf1 |
| Black castles a-side | c-castling | O-O-Oc | Kc9, Rd9 |
| Black castles i-side | g-castling | O-O-Og | Kg9, Rf9 |
However, castling may only occur under the following conditions, which are extensions of the standard rules for castling:
- Unmoved: The King and the castling Rook must not have moved before in the game, including a previous castling.
- Un-attacked: All of the squares between the king's initial and final squares (including the initial and final squares) must not be under attack by any opposing piece.
- Vacant: All the squares between the king's initial and final squares (including the final square), and all of the squares between the rook's initial and final squares (including the final square), must be vacant except for the king and castling rook.
- Castling cannot capture any pieces.
- The king and castling rook cannot "jump" over any pieces other than each other.
- A player may castle at most once in a game.
- If a player moves his king or both of his initial rooks without castling, he may not castle during the rest of the game.
- In some starting positions, some squares can stay filled during castling that would have to be vacant in Modern Chess. For example, after c-castling (O-O-Oc), it's possible for to have a, b, and/or e still filled, and after g-castling (O-O-Og), it's possible to have e, h and/or i filled.
- In some starting positions, the king or rook (but not both) do not move during castling.
- In some starting positions, castling can take place as early as the first move.
- The king may not be in check before or after castling.
- The King cannot move through check.
- The King cannot jump over his own rook if and when said rook stands on a “checked†square.
- Castling in PMRC is symmetric to either side of the board. PMRC Castling is like the Orthodox long castling (O-O-O) but to either side.
Notes
This variation was invented by José Manuel Carrillo-Muñiz, from Puerto Rico, in May 2008.Game Courier Preset
Prime Ministers Random Chess presetsGame Courier Logs
Game Courier Logs for Games of Prime Ministers Random ChessTo see actual games that have been played on-line, follow the link above.
Other Variants by the Author:
- Modern Random Chess (9x9)
- Contemporary Random Chess (8x8)
- Modern Capablanca Random Chess (10x8)
Other Pages by the Author:
List of items authored by: José Carrillo
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.
By Jose Carrillo.
Web page created: 2008-06-01. Web page last updated: 2008-06-01