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Bobby Fischer felt the same way and proposed Chess960 which has a random initial board configuration for that reason:

In a 2006 Icelandic Radio interview, Fischer explained his dissatisfaction with the current chess:[575]

[In] chess, so much depends on opening theory, so the champions before the last century didn't know nearly as much as, say, I do and other players know about opening theory. So if you just brought them back from the dead they might not do too well, because they'd get bad openings. You cannot compare the playing strength, you can only talk about natural ability, because now there is so much more opening theory, so much more memorization. Memorization is enormously powerful. Some kid of fourteen today, or even younger, could get the opening advantage against Capablanca, or especially against the players of the previous century, like Morphy and Steinitz, easily. Maybe they'd still be able to outplay the young kid of today, but maybe not. Because nowadays when you get the opening advantage, not only do you get the opening advantage, but you know how to play the opening advantage â" they have so many examples of what to do from this position. So it's really deadly, it is very deadly... that's why I don't like chess anymore... It's all just memorization and prearrangement, it's a terrible game now. A very un-creative game now.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

This is usually called Fischer Random, and the current world champion of Fischer Random is Magnus Carlsen.

I was actually thinking solitaire 3D or Suduko 3D. Just imagine how it would improve your gameplay. ;)

I could go for *actual* 3D chess: I have an old board game of such from - I think - the 60s called "Space Chess" (and here). That'd be pretty cool in 3D.

'course, Go would be kind of dull too on an 4x8 board (checkers only uses half the squares)
http://www.chessvariants.com/d.betza/chessvar/16x1 6.html

Give it a try!

You can't go wrong with the following games:

• Go
• Xiangqi
• Shogi

These games have stood the test of time for a reason. If you don't try them then you are missing out on some serious fun.

You can't go wrong with the following games:

• Go
• Xiangqi
• Shogi

These games have stood the test of time for a reason. If you don't try them then you are missing out on some serious fun.

2x2 chess... the new reform chess variant?

Yes, I know that, as a computer game, it's strictly not a board game, but Zillions of Games is one of the best generic board game simulators available on the computer, at least for discrete non-math-based, non-card-based games. About 30 games and their variants are included with the default installation and users can modify these files or create their own to create new games. The best part of it is that ZoG has an AI such that you can input the rules of a game and the computer can generally play competently enough to beat you a large amount of the time by brute force. This is an especially excellent program for people who are fond of chess variants and want to see how an invented variant might play out. It allowed me to implement a chess variant I wrote in middle school. ^_^ And showed me that the variant was hideously unbalanced, but that's another matter entirely...

ChessVariants.com has a play by email system for Chess, and a whole whack of chess variants (Xiang Qi, Shogi, Shatranj, etc). So I'd say, yes, play by email is alive and kicking.

I prefer to play tridimensional chess.

The orient, anyway-- there's also some evidence China may have been a source. A website which discusses the origins can be found here, and at least sounds plausible, but whose accuracy I am unqualified to judge. However, notable (and something I remember from may days with the SCA as being accurate) is that the exact pieces, moves, and board played on have varied over the ages. The game we commonly call chess today looks notably different from the Indian original (enough to send Deep Blue into a fit if you set it up for a match), and is a composite from several influences, having changed markedly over the centuries. (There still are a lot of obscure variants out there.)

So, while you're correct that this may have been the church altering history, it may be that life imitates art. This alteration of history might be why the CURRENT European style pieces have the CURRENT moves. You'd really want to ask an expert about it-- or at least, to recommend a good book on the subject. But more likely, it's unprovable at this point.

Incidentally, in the wake of this story I noticed that he's been promoting something called "Fischerandom Chess" in which the first row pieces are places semi-randomly. See for more on this game.

Clicky!

You should obviously change the game to take advantage of the hardware. Imagine it! Three dimensional chess where each piece has weapons, or magical attacks, deformable terrain, and lots of special effects to make use of the latest video cards! I can't wait!

Been there, done that. See The Chess Variant Pages. It lists about a hundred chess variants, some of which are three dimensional, and has links to places where you can download software to play variants (commercial and otherwise). The site has an applet that you can play different variants on (although it plays a horrible game).

You should obviously change the game to take advantage of the hardware. Imagine it! Three dimensional chess where each piece has weapons, or magical attacks, deformable terrain, and lots of special effects to make use of the latest video cards! I can't wait!

Been there, done that. See The Chess Variant Pages. It lists about a hundred chess variants, some of which are three dimensional, and has links to places where you can download software to play variants (commercial and otherwise). The site has an applet that you can play different variants on (although it plays a horrible game).

People are not claiming the right to cheat: I have never heard anybody complain that online chess servers don't allow them to log in and remove the other guys queen while he is taking a bathroom break.

(<sarcasm> tags omitted as I'm not really sure I'm 100% joking....)

Chess programming has long since diverged from AI research and application. The three things that drive computer chess engines at the moment are (a) computing power, (b) clever hacks like rotated bitboards and (c) extensive opening databases. Remember, if the branching factor of the tree is 3 (which is really quite good for a chess engine), it will take 3 times the "computing power" to reach one more ply. The opening database tends to have a much greater effect than either a or b. And is the reason many criticize these matchups, saying things like, "Well, computers win because of their huge opening databases, with pre-computed scores, but they can't really outplay the human opponent."

A much more interesting and level playing field is Fischer Random Chess, which effectively renders opening books reverse obsolescent (with a large time scale).

It's also a fun variant that doesn't require a paradigm shift in thought to play.

So by new and different, you mean a completely new concept? Something just as addictive as Civ, but decidedly not Civ ?? As a previous poster has said, Chess has been around for quite some time and people still enjoy playing it. They also enjoy playing countless variations of Chess, with freakishly modified rules and boards and everything else. But you know what? To develop those variations there had to be an original version of Chess to build from.

I'm willing to bet that, given a few years' time, you'll see some completely new and different ways of playing Civ, thanks to FreeCiv being developed as an open project. Cloning the original version is just the starting point for FreeCiv ... where we go from there is up to anyone who feels like coding.

Here's a link to a good description of Shogi, I'm sure I'm not the only one who doesn't know about the game.

If you, like a lot of other players, get fed up because because you don't know chess openings, check out fischerrandom chess. It's a variant of normal chess designed by bobby fischer (often thought of as the greatest chess player of all time (I disagree, but...)).

http://www.chessvariants.com/diffsetup.dir/fischer .html

Since the game starts at a somewhat random position, pre-definied and known openings aren't an advantage.

regards,
garc

Under the F.I.D.E. laws (I dunno how official this is, since I'm not a chess person -- it seems to be "official" chess, according to the site), rule 10.10 states that it's a draw when the chess board repeats its state for the 3rd time. There are OBVIOUSLY a FINITE number of chess board states (placing a finite number of pieces on a finite number of squares, plus a few extra bits to represent piece "rights" such as castling and en passant stuff). Therefore, sooner or later, a chess game will either end "normally" or run out of states that haven't been hit twice.

This post is a very late and since this is slashdot, it probably won't be read, but...

What about chess? Or, if you're looking for something that fewer people will understand, some variant? Check out chessvariants.


Abstainer: a weak person who yields to the temptation of denying himself a pleasure.

There have been many, many, many variations on chess created in the last century; the reason you've never heard of them is that chess players view them as a curiosity and distraction, but not as anything useful.

No, the reason you've never heard about them is you haven't been listening. First of all, chess itself is a variant. Likely the original "chess" was what we now call Chaturanga, which dates back to 7th century India. This evolved, as variants continually cropped and died out, but occasionally replaced chess itself. Soon Chaturanga became Shatranj, and so on. Rules were changed or added, one by one. Pawns became able to move two spaces instead of one on their first move. En passant was introduced. Castling began as well. The Indian pieces were replaced with European medieval figure representations. And so forth.

But it doesn't stop at historical variants... there are literally thousands of chess variants played regularly around the world. You can find many in the wonderful book The Encyclopedia of Chess Variants or on The Chess Variant Pages. Many variants can be played online at chess servers like The Free Internet Chess Server (telnet freechess.org 5000), The Middle East Wild Internet Server (telnet chess.mds.mdh.se 5555), The Internet Chess Club, etc.

Chess Variants I have played and enjoy:
Standard, Blitz, Lightning, Quantum, Hourglass, Bughouse, 3 Board Bughouse, 4 Board Bughouse, 5 Board Bughouse, Aerial Bughouse, Crazyhouse, Suicide, Atomic, Wild 5, Wild 10, Kriegspiel, Progressive, Magnetic, Fairy Tale, Alice, Fischer Random, Random, Thai, Shogi, Xiangqi, 3 Player Chess, 4 Player Chess, Cylindrical, Infinite, Capablanca's, Mutation, Absorption, Inverse Capture, Rifle, Kamikaze, Extinction, Take-All, Rotation, Marseillais, Stealth, Hostage, Insane, Ultima and Command.

Many of these variants were created by world class chess players to add another dimension to the game. For example, Fischer Random was invented by Bobby Fischer to eliminate opennings from the game. Capablanca created Capablanca's Chess. The list goes on and on.

My all time favorite chess variant is bughouse, wherein you have two boards side by side and a partner who plays the opposite color from you... you pass your partner the pieces you capture and he does likewise, then as your move you may place one of these pieces on the board instead of playing a normal move with the pieces already on the board. It is a very social game and is much more fun than chess itself.

Check out my webpage for more information on variants, chess servers, and other chess stuff: http://www.cs.rit.edu/~cem9314/chess/.

There have been many, many, many variations on chess created in the last century; the reason you've never heard of them is that chess players view them as a curiosity and distraction, but not as anything useful.

No, the reason you've never heard about them is you haven't been listening. First of all, chess itself is a variant. Likely the original "chess" was what we now call Chaturanga, which dates back to 7th century India. This evolved, as variants continually cropped and died out, but occasionally replaced chess itself. Soon Chaturanga became Shatranj, and so on. Rules were changed or added, one by one. Pawns became able to move two spaces instead of one on their first move. En passant was introduced. Castling began as well. The Indian pieces were replaced with European medieval figure representations. And so forth.

But it doesn't stop at historical variants... there are literally thousands of chess variants played regularly around the world. You can find many in the wonderful book The Encyclopedia of Chess Variants or on The Chess Variant Pages. Many variants can be played online at chess servers like The Free Internet Chess Server (telnet freechess.org 5000), The Middle East Wild Internet Server (telnet chess.mds.mdh.se 5555), The Internet Chess Club, etc.

Chess Variants I have played and enjoy:
Standard, Blitz, Lightning, Quantum, Hourglass, Bughouse, 3 Board Bughouse, 4 Board Bughouse, 5 Board Bughouse, Aerial Bughouse, Crazyhouse, Suicide, Atomic, Wild 5, Wild 10, Kriegspiel, Progressive, Magnetic, Fairy Tale, Alice, Fischer Random, Random, Thai, Shogi, Xiangqi, 3 Player Chess, 4 Player Chess, Cylindrical, Infinite, Capablanca's, Mutation, Absorption, Inverse Capture, Rifle, Kamikaze, Extinction, Take-All, Rotation, Marseillais, Stealth, Hostage, Insane, Ultima and Command.

Many of these variants were created by world class chess players to add another dimension to the game. For example, Fischer Random was invented by Bobby Fischer to eliminate opennings from the game. Capablanca created Capablanca's Chess. The list goes on and on.

My all time favorite chess variant is bughouse, wherein you have two boards side by side and a partner who plays the opposite color from you... you pass your partner the pieces you capture and he does likewise, then as your move you may place one of these pieces on the board instead of playing a normal move with the pieces already on the board. It is a very social game and is much more fun than chess itself.

Check out my webpage for more information on variants, chess servers, and other chess stuff: http://www.cs.rit.edu/~cem9314/chess/.

There have been many, many, many variations on chess created in the last century; the reason you've never heard of them is that chess players view them as a curiosity and distraction, but not as anything useful.

No, the reason you've never heard about them is you haven't been listening. First of all, chess itself is a variant. Likely the original "chess" was what we now call Chaturanga, which dates back to 7th century India. This evolved, as variants continually cropped and died out, but occasionally replaced chess itself. Soon Chaturanga became Shatranj, and so on. Rules were changed or added, one by one. Pawns became able to move two spaces instead of one on their first move. En passant was introduced. Castling began as well. The Indian pieces were replaced with European medieval figure representations. And so forth.

But it doesn't stop at historical variants... there are literally thousands of chess variants played regularly around the world. You can find many in the wonderful book The Encyclopedia of Chess Variants or on The Chess Variant Pages. Many variants can be played online at chess servers like The Free Internet Chess Server (telnet freechess.org 5000), The Middle East Wild Internet Server (telnet chess.mds.mdh.se 5555), The Internet Chess Club, etc.

Chess Variants I have played and enjoy:
Standard, Blitz, Lightning, Quantum, Hourglass, Bughouse, 3 Board Bughouse, 4 Board Bughouse, 5 Board Bughouse, Aerial Bughouse, Crazyhouse, Suicide, Atomic, Wild 5, Wild 10, Kriegspiel, Progressive, Magnetic, Fairy Tale, Alice, Fischer Random, Random, Thai, Shogi, Xiangqi, 3 Player Chess, 4 Player Chess, Cylindrical, Infinite, Capablanca's, Mutation, Absorption, Inverse Capture, Rifle, Kamikaze, Extinction, Take-All, Rotation, Marseillais, Stealth, Hostage, Insane, Ultima and Command.

Many of these variants were created by world class chess players to add another dimension to the game. For example, Fischer Random was invented by Bobby Fischer to eliminate opennings from the game. Capablanca created Capablanca's Chess. The list goes on and on.

My all time favorite chess variant is bughouse, wherein you have two boards side by side and a partner who plays the opposite color from you... you pass your partner the pieces you capture and he does likewise, then as your move you may place one of these pieces on the board instead of playing a normal move with the pieces already on the board. It is a very social game and is much more fun than chess itself.

Check out my webpage for more information on variants, chess servers, and other chess stuff: http://www.cs.rit.edu/~cem9314/chess/.

Check http://www.chessvariants.com or try to get your hands on a copy of Variant Chess, published by the British Chess Variants Society. These variants use the same equipment as 'regular' chess.

Or maybe you're referring to 'Fairy Chess' variants like the Star Trek 3-d chess, where you use different pieces or boards.

C h a z m a t i

I don't know if you've ever heard of Zillions, it's this really cool generic board game playing program. You can basically write many different types games for it and it will play them, oftentimes very well. It has certain limitations in the sort of games it can play (mainly that it doesn't handle games like Go or Hex where the concept of a topologically connected group is important), but it can play many different types of Chess variants and Chess-type games, even incredibly complicated ones like Ultima.

Anyway, playing against the program is exactly like that if you're playing a game that it plays really well. It usually can't search 50-something moves ahead, of course, but it's really strange to see it say "Win in 14!" when you thought you were winning. For certain simple games like Nim, you can see the exact move you made which caused you to lose, immediately after you make it.

What you are thinking of are called Chess Variants.