Black Swan
Black Swans are unpredictable events that bring devastating outcomes.
This game aims to mix logic with unpredictability.
There have been may unsuccessful attempts to randomize the chess board,
the most famous being Fisher Random Chess.
However, a game called Arimaa was somewhat more successful at mixing the logic of chess with randomness,
but not even this game managed to solve the problem.
Setup
All pieces, except for the Kings, are replaced by Black Swans.
The setup looks like this:
Pieces
Black Swans move and behave like Pawns, but they cannot be captured on their starting position.
Black Swans have their identities hidden from both players.
Each player has a set of 20 Black Swans, but only 15 of them are on the board, sellected and placed in a random fashion.
Each set of pieces has the following composition:
1) Regular pieces
- 8 Pawns
- 2 Rooks
- 2 Knights
- 2 Bishops
- 2 Queens
2) Black Swans
- 2 random pieces (including Pawns)
- 2 random pieces (excluding Pawns)
- 3 random pieces (including Pawns)
- 3 Random pieces (excluding Pawns)
Occurence:
- Pawn = 8 out of 20
- Rook = 2 out of 20
- Knight = 2 out of 20
- Bishop = 2 out of 20
- Queen = 2 out of 20
- Black Swan = 4 out of 20
We need to make here a clear distinction between Black Swans represented as pieces vs events:
- Black Swans (pieces); any piece present in the game face down
- Black Swans (events); any combination/permutation of one, two, or three random pieces (excluding the Kings).
Rules
There is no castling.
Black Swans move and behave like Pawns, but cannot be captured on their starting position.
Black Swans will have to move at least one square before being fliped over and replaced by their "hidden power".
A Black Swan coming from the first rank can be flipped over on the second rank, provided there is an empty square to land on.
In that case, any Black Swan landing on the second rank can be subject to capturing, but only after being flipped over and replaced by the corresponding pieces.
If an enemy piece lands on a square on the second rank, the Black Swans from the first rank can capture that piece by a Pawn like move.
If this happens, the Black Swan will also have to be flipped over and replaced by the piece/pieces they represent, counting as a single move.
If a Black Swan turns out to be another Black Swan that will bring more that one piece on the board,
one piece will remain in the position of the moved Black Swan, and the other piece/pieces will be placed on a nearby
empty square in their own half of the board.
If a Pawn reaches the promotion line it can be promoted to any of the following:
- 1 Random piece (excluding the Pawns). Occurence 3 out of 5.
- 2 Random Pieces (excluding the Pawns). Occurence 1 out of 5.
- 3 Random Pieces (excluding the Pawns). Occurence 1 out of 5.
If a Pawn promotes to more than one piece, one piece will replace the Pawn, while the remaining will be placed
on nearby empty squares.
Since Black Swans are flipped over one by one, there is not the risk that the board might be jammed, considering that the occurence of Black Swans (events) is only 4 out of 20.
If a Black Swan (piece) turns out to be another Black Swan (event) it will be replaced straight away by the corresponding pieces, counting as a single move.
A Black Swan (event) can no longer move and behave like a Pawn, but will be replaced by the corresponding pieces.
Notes
Players might decide the occurence of Black Swans by increassing/decreassing the number of regular pieces.
If a Black Swan coming from the first rank gets flipped over on the second rank, it can be subject to capturing, but not in the next consecutive move.
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By Florin Lupusoru.
Last revised by Florin Lupusoru.
Web page created: 2024-01-01. Web page last updated: 2024-02-16