Fischer Placement Chess (Chess25)
This page contains one or more presets for playing a game online with Game Courier, an online server for playing Chess variants by correspondence.
In Fischer Placement Chess (FPC, Chess25) Black can decide the initial positions of the kings, while White can decide the initial positions of the queens. The positions must mirror each other. Fischer Placement Chess is like standard chess except that the players can, before play begins, swap places of the king + queen and another piece. The king may not swap with any of the rooks. The queen can be swapped with one of the rooks provided that the king remains between the rooks (this is a requirement of Chess960).Thus, when the king is swapped (relocated), the other piece (the relocatee) ends up on the king's square. When the queen is swapped, the relocatee ends up on the queen's square. One restriction is that the bishops mustn't end up on the same square colour, and the king cannot become a relocatee (i.e. swapped by the queen). Note that black begins by swapping his king. Alternatively he can choose to leave the position as it is. The white player then mirrors black's swap. After the kings thus have been swapped the turn is still with white. White can now relocate the queen, if he so wishes, and black then mirrors this. Next, white starts the game by making the first move. Diagrams of the 25 possible positions can be viewed here. It is a subset of Chess960 (Fischer Random Chess).
Note that the king retains his castling rights even if it has been relocated. The castling rules are simple and derive from Chess960. King and rook end up on their usual squares. The only difference is that the king can make longer leaps than usual (or shorter, or none at all). All squares between king and rook must be empty and unthreatened and neither of the pieces must have moved before.
Note! Castling is done by dropping the king on the rook. This is to resolve ambiguites. (The players must themselves keep count of whether or not the king/rook have already been moved.) Moves are automated (point and click), but rules of check, etc., are ignored. At pawn promotion the player is asked about promotion piece.
Note! During the initial relocation phase, when a red pawn is visible, the player is compelled to pass the move by moving the red pawn. When a green pawn is visible, the player can either make a piece swap or pass the move (by moving the green pawn). You can only swap pieces by typing e.g. "swap e8 g8". When the relocation phase is over the number (1) shows up on the board.
Fischer Placement Chess (Chess25)
A Zillions
program and more information is here.
See also: Placement Chess (which is the same except that the rooks cannot be swapped).
See also: Configuration Chess (400 positions, mostly non-mirrored, are generated).
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 M Winther.
Web page created: 2010-12-18. Web page last updated: 2010-12-18