Fluidity Chess
I've created this variant for Lichess (free libre chess site with millions of players), but its developers don’t need it now. I've written it here.
Setup
Standard chessboard and setup without pawns.
Pieces
All pieces can't move to an occupied square. Also they can make check only on their move destinations (to explain this, it's said that they can throw a knife in foe king). They capture by dissecting — going through all the opponent's pieces to the free square behind them with capturing them. So it's possible to capture many pieces at once.
Bishop
- moves & checks as in chess, unobstructed diagonal line;
- is ranger and captures the opponent’s pieces by going through them and moving to any free square behind them;
- as ranger, he can capture up to 3 pieces per turn;
- is colorbound;
- can't move through friendly pieces;
- and can't capture a piece which stands on the edge of the board.
Knight
- moves & checks as in chess, L-shape;
- is leaper and captures those pieces which are in 1 and 2 squares orthogonally in direction of this move (as we learn his moves, 2 squares straight in one side, 1 in other; and first 2 squares are under dissecting capture there);
- as leaper, it can capture up to 2 pieces per turn, and checks so differently than captures;
- can jump over friendly pieces (without capturing them);
- and can capture a piece which stands on every square, even on the edge or corner of the board.
Rook
- moves & checks as in chess, unobstructed orthogonal (straight) line;
- is ranger and captures by going through the pieces to any free square behind them;
- can capture up to 3 pieces per turn;
- can't move through friendly pieces;
- can't capture piece which stands in corner;
- but can capture a piece if it's on the edge of the board;
- and can capture during the castling (see later).
Queen
Bishop + Rook, she is ranger and can capture up to 3 pieces which aren't on the corner, per turn; she can't move through friendly pieces.
King
As in chess, 1 square in arbitrary directions, can't move into check; but he doesn’t capture by himself because he can't dissect (and by this, two kings can be near each other, due to being not in check. So you can checkmate or stalemate opponent’s king near your king by another piece(s)). Castling: you can castle if:
- your king and rook haven’t moved yet;
- your king isn’t under check;
- your castling path is free from your pieces & isn't under check;
- you have opponent’s pieces between king and rook, but not in row. (If you have foe pieces on b & d files, you can castle queenside yet).
and if you castle through them, you capture them — up to 1 piece by castling kingside, and up to 2 if queenside, and castling can capture only minor pieces, i. e. Bishops or/and Knights. (King can capture only during castling.)
He is royal, but can't be captured by displacement, you simply should avoid check and prevent the dissecting of him.
Examples
In this diagram, Rook on d1, Bishops on a4 & b2, and both Kings cannot be captured at this turn. Circles show legal moves for white Rook on b4. It can move vertically (but not to b1 due to friendly piece on b2 blocking its path), but this isn't pleasant here. However, it can capture black's Knight on c4 and Queen on d4 at once (landing on e4), or take them with Bishop on f4 also (three pieces are permitted to be taken at once) landing on g4 and checking black King; so it's win in 3 for White (because King can't take and it will have to go h5 or h3, and Rook from d1 can come [back;)] to h1 and check also, so black must block it by moving Bishop to h2, so Rook from h1 takes both Bishop and King, landing on h file behind the King - there's no restriction to take two adjacent pieces if King went h3).
Also white can move by Bishop (pinned by the way) from b2 to c3 (but it's not pleasant here) or to take black Queen, only (landing on e5 or f6) or with Knight on g7 (landing on h8), and this makes the situation unclear: initiative goes to black (Knight can take the Rook on b4 by going a3 with hidden threat to white King which should move b2 to save the game), but white Bishop is lucky and breaks their plans to win, with possibility for d1 Rook to 'dance' with black King to draw. Also white can move by d1 Rook (also possibly capturing Queen) or by King.
But if white does so, this is won game for black.
Rules
Your aim is to checkmate the opponent's king or capture him by dissection if:
- opponent will block the path of check after your move, and his king will be behind his own pieces (and behind the king will be free square(s));
- you can do it by your knight.
So stalemate is a loss of player without legal moves.
Draw is available if:
- only 2 kings & 1 bishop left on the board;
- there is 3-fold repetition;
- or there are 25 moves without checkmate/stalemate/capture.
2 kings and 1 knight endgame is not automatic draw.
Notes
If you want to see how it looks, tap here.
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By Lev Grigoriev.
Last revised by Lev Grigoriev.
Web page created: 2022-07-25. Web page last updated: 2024-03-16