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This page is written by the game's inventor, Ralph Betza.

You Heard It Here First

I was just going to write down my idea for a form of grid chess based on the Sam Loyd puzzle, when I read somebody else's game with the same idea.

That was awful. Can't let it happen again.

Here, in a few hastily scribbled words, we have Chess with Mixed Pawns

The rules of FIDE Chess apply except

Each player has four normal Pawns and four Berolina Pawns.

The Berolina pawns start on the a, b, g, and h files.

Discussion of the Game

Although I haven't examines it yet, I suspect that it will be a very interesting game.

The Berolina Pawns want to come to the center, for example 1.h2-f4 which also develops the Rook; but then the two kinds of Pawns may get in the way of each other and become quite inconvenient.

The shortest game ending in mate must be 2. Bd3-g6, and except for move order, the rest of the moves are forced.

One More Thing

Think about this setup with ordinary Pawns and pieces:
 r n b q k b n r
 . p p . . p p .
 . p p . . p p .
 . . . . . . . .
 . . . . . . . .
 . . . . . . . .
 P P P P P P P P
 R N B Q K B N R
In the above position, Black has the weakness of doubled Pawns, and he has a severe lack of center Pawns; as compensation, he has excellent development. I think the development is more important, so I have given White the first move withthe "normal" position. I wonder who is winning?

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