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Art of chess game & variants

 

20-chess

 

The game of chess we are presenting here, has been constructed and tested by ourself, a game with constantly changing situations. A dice with 20 facets variates the rules. Where the orthodox chess game often has a boring end, this is not the case here. Nevertheless this games stays close to the orthodox chess, and it requires thorough thinking. Coincidense is not so important as in the usual dice chess (as discribed on page 4).

Required: orthodox chess board and chessmen, a white and a black additional piece, a dice with 20 facets and the paper with the 20 rule variations (can be downloaded on this page).

Where the main part of fantasy chess games (see f.i. 'zillions of games') are difficult because of the double functions of the chessmen, here the rules stay simple. We tried this game several times and it turns out to be very entertaining. The capacities different from orthodox chess are based on shogun, old Indian chess or fantasy chess puzzles.

 

 

Rules

To play with the usual chessmen on a usual chess board. The rules of orthodox chess are followed, unless otherwise indicated on the 20 rules paper. White throws the dice indicating which of the 20 rule variants to be followed, for both white and black.

Goal is still to stalemate the opponent's king. It is advised that both players make notes of their moves.

Starting position can be orthodox, but it is more fascinating to start from a tabijas, a position from one of the openings (with white on turn of coarse). Such a positions are to find in books on openings or on the internet.

Because white starts, white is somewhat favoured from the dice surprise, so always play an even amount of games with changing colour.

Here are the 20 variants on the orthodox chess rules:

1-as in orthodox chess
2-turn consists of 2 moves, with 2 different pieces (ex K+p) (so 2 moves for white, followed by 2 moves for black)
3-each player first exchanges the position of two of his own chessmen, next each player makes a move with one of his other chessmen.

 

4-in case both players has captured pieces (if not, just orthodox chess), each player chooses one of his captured pieces and drops it on an empty square of his choice (except: checking is not allowed, a pawn cannot be dropped on the last row). Next each player moves with another piece.
5-as 4, except the piece is chosen by the opponent
6-in case both players have captured pieces (if not, just orthodox chess), each player keeps on placing his captured pieces as in rule 4, untill one of the players does not have a captured chessman anymore. Followed by a move with another piece.
7-this move is only with a pawn or the king
8-this move is only with a knight or the king
9-this move is only with a bishop or the king
10-this move is only with a rook or the king
11-both bishop and rook have the additional power of moving one square in the remaining direction (such as promoted rook or bishop in shogun)
12-each player drops the additional chessman on an empty field of his choice (as in shogun), which is now a fool (has the capacity of the previous moved chessman).* Followed by a move with another chessman
13-each player drops the extra chessman on an empty field of his choice (as in shogun), which is now an elephant (one or two squares diagonally, also jumping).* Followed by a move with another chessman
14-each player drops the extra chessman on an empty field of his choice (as in shogun), which is now a mountain (cannot move and cannot be captured).* Followed by a move with another chessman

 


15. the king has now and only now the capacity of a knight, (one can also choose to move another chessman), castling is not allowed in this turn
16-in this turn the chess board has to be regarded as cylindrical, the right and left side are interconnected (as if the chess board were a cylinder)
17-a move (or capture) is only allowed when another of your chessmen of your choice, makes an identical move (not regarding his normal capacity), and by doing so lands on an empty square.
18-in this turn only backwards moving is allowed (if the chessman has this capacity)
19- each player chooses one of his chessman on the board to give to his opponent as a captured piece. Followed by a move as in orthodox chess.
20-when a player chooses to move his knight, bishop or rook, he has to move both of this type of chessmen (if they are still on the game) (both can move, capture or check)

(*) When the additional chess piece is already in the game, it's capacity changes and it can be dropped again on any empty field as if it was not in the game yet. In case of the extra piece was in capture, it is put into the game again. When white has done a move with the additional piece, black still can do a move with his (even so when the extra piece is a fool). By 4, 5 and 6 they are not regarded as part of the captured pieces. The capacity of the additional piece remains constant untill a cast changes it or untill they are captured. It also remains when the cast is one.

Download the pdf

© Johan Framhout March 2021


As additional notation symbols, we used ~ for changing places, > for dropping and < for the offer (cast 19)

In this game it is possible that the cast of the dice stalmates a king. For example when 16 is thrown, and the king is still behind three pawns, with the opponent's rook on the last row.

 

 

Example of a situation during the game

The additional piece was on the board as an elephant. By the cast of 12 that piece turned to be a fool and was dropped again. The last move has been a pawn so the fool has the capacity of a pawn on the moment it is dropped. The king was therefore not in check, which is not allowed to do when dropping. In the second move black used a bishop. This situation is now showed in the illustration beside. White is on turn and the white king is in check.

(1) The cast is 19... (each offers one of his pieces + each a move). White gives pawn a2 to be captured, black answers with the offering of a7. Those are not moves, so the fool keeps the capacity of a bishop. If white K would move to g2, black would answer with his knight and the white king would be again in check, if the cast of the dice allows it.

White decides to (1) R a1-b1, black K is now in check. Black answers B x F g5. Now theoretically the white king is in check, but that depends which chessman white uses now. White cannot use the queen, since that would be suicide, so the black queen and knight are not in danger.

(2) Cast 17... White wants to keep his king safe in the second part of this turn. g4 nor e3 are empty squares. Pawn h7 to h4 is not an option, the white king on g3 is all to easy to put in check.

(continuation of 2) ...white Q b5 and K e1 as identical move. The fool has now the capacity of a king. Black pawn h7-h5 and Q to d6, again the white king is in danger.

(3) Cast 11... (bishop and rook with one square additonal moves in other direction) white R d1-e2, black F e3-d2 (the fool moves as a rook with the additional one square in diagonal direction)

(4) Cast 1... (orthodox chess) R x F d2, the thread is gone

© Johan Framhout March 2021

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