Dice Landing Chess

Chess is a great game. It has been around for well over 1,000 years. The current form of chess is 100 years old - this year the International Chess Federation (FIDE) celebrates its centenary anniversary.

But many people, especially beginners aren't happy with the opening stage of FIDE chess - It's no fun the 8 pawns block the major pieces. Also the conventional chess takes too much time to play a good game - it's a major task managing 16 of your own pieces while watching out your opponents' 16 pieces.

Since I invented DLchess (Dice Landing chess) more than 10 years ago, I have played with strangers in public parks, during air travels, and on a cruise ship. The rules are easy to follow, and people enjoy the dynamic games from the first minute!

Playing DLchess is really fun: 

• No more complex opening strategies to be memorized.
• The anticipation of getting a good piece when rolling the die.
• Actually getting to deploy a wanted piece.
• Checking or capturing pieces just a few moves into a game.
• Competitive games between players at different skill levels.
• The die can still give you hope even when you are about to lose a game.
• Lost a game quick? Just start a new one - maybe luck will be on your side!
•  Chess skills steadily improve through fun games.

Setup

Rules

1. DLchess (Dice Landing chess) uses the same chess pieces and the same chess board as in conventional chess. At the beginning of a DLchess game, some pieces are inside the chess board – these pieces are in active play; some other pieces are in reserves – one reserve pile for each player. The reserve pieces are placed outside of the chess board waiting to be deployed.

2. All the pieces in active play follow the same chess rules to move, capture, castle, check, or promote.

3. Players can either make a move with the pieces in active play, or roll a die in attempt to deploy a piece from the reserves. The die’s upper surface indicates a chess piece that can be deployed.

4. The 6-sided die can have many different symbol combinations. One die may have the symbols J ♕ ♖ ♗ ♘ ♙ depicted on the sides. A second example has J J ♗ ♘ ♙♙; and a third example has J ♔ ♖ ♗ ♘ ♙. The smiley face allows any one piece to be deployed from the reserve. Although there can be multiple dice associated with different opening setups and reserve-pile compositions, each game only uses a single die. 

5. When the King is under check, a player is still allowed to roll the die to get a reserve piece in to block the check. The game is lost if the newly deployed piece is unable to block the check, or if the die fails to deploy a piece and the player is not able to defend the king using pieces in active play.

6. When a reserve piece enters active play, it must land in any one of its FIDE chess starting squares. Multiple pieces may land in the same square during the course of a game. For instance, white first deploys a Rook and places it in square a1. Later this Rook moves to other places. When the second Rook is deployed, it can still be placed at square a1, or at h1, at the player’s discretion.

7. The first Bishop entering active duty can be placed either on a dark square or a light square. If the first Bishop remains in the game when the second Bishop is deployed, then the second Bishop has to be placed in a square of opposite color. Otherwise if the first Bishop is already gone, then the second Bishop can pick either color.

8. The following cases are failed attempts to deploy a reserve piece:

a. The die indicates a piece but the reserve has depleted that piece.

b. The die indicates a piece but all that piece’s starting squares are occupied.

In the situation of an unsuccessful deployment, a player has to make a move with the pieces in active play.

9. For annotation, symbol “>” is used to denote successful deployment, while “<” denotes unsuccessful deployment.

10. “Landing exemption”. When a piece is newly deployed, it is exempted from immediate capture by the opponent. It can be captured in subsequent turns.

11. If a player’s King is in stalemate situation yet reserve pile is not empty, then the player must roll the die in attempt to deploy a piece. Only when deployment is unsuccessful (see Rules 8a and 8b), then the game ends in true stalemate.

12. DLchess can have many different opening lineups and reserve piles composition. At the beginning of a game, the composition of pieces in active play and in the reserve piles can be different for the two players, and the positions of the active pieces can be asymmetric, so long as they are agreed upon by the players.

13. The fate of the captured pieces: one variant is that the captured pieces are taken out of the game permanently. The other variant is called “revival”: the “captured” pieces are immediately returned to the previous owner’s reserve pile, and can be deployed thereafter.

14. If the kings are in reserve piles, a king’s landing square (e1 for white and e8 for black) cannot be occupied by own pieces before the king is deployed.

Notes

-=-=-=-= Here is a DLchess game example -=-=-=-=-=

Opening lineup: See diagram in the Setup section.

Captured pieces are taken out of the game.

Die print: J ♕ ♖ ♗ ♘ ♙

Black’s reserve: ♛♜♝♞♟

White’s reserve: ♕♖♖♗♙ (It’s a handicap game: white’s reserve pieces are stronger)

(For annotation, symbol “>” is used to denote successful deployment, while “<” denotes unsuccessful deployment.)

1. ♘<♘g4; ♘>♘g8

2. J >♕d1; ♘<♘gh6

3. ♗>♗f1; ♖>♖a8

4. ♖>♖a1; ♖b8

(Per “Landing exemption” rule: black ♖ cannot capture the newly deployed white ♖)

5. ♘xh6;  ♘xh6

6. ♕h5+; ♘f7

7. ♗d3; ♗>♗f8

8. ♗g6; ♗<♔d8?

(♔e7 is better. Occupying block d8 prevents the potential deployment of ♕)

9. ♗xf7; ♙>c7

10. ♕g5+; ♔c8 

11. ♕g8; ♘<♔b7

12. ♖b1+; ♔a7

13. ♖xb8; ♔xb8

14. ♕xf8+;   (Black resigns, 1:0 )

Last revised by Jishan Zhang.