Josh Green Presents
Chess Variants
Congratulations on your purchase of the classic game system “ Chess Set ,” abbreviated here as “ CS2 .” Although your system probably came with “ Chess ,” many other games have been developed for it . I suspect you are familiar with “ Suicide Chess ” ( in which the goal is to lose all of your pieces ) and “ Bughouse ” ( which requires that you connect two CS2s together and , in its best form , requires the “ Chess Clock Expansion Pack ”). Here I ’ ll describe some of the other available CS2 titles , most of which are discussed on The Chess Variant Pages ( www . chessvariants . com ).
Extinction Chess
“ Extinction Chess ,” invented by R . Wayne Schmittberger in 1985 , is very similar to Chess ; only the goal has changed . In this game , the object is simply to capture all the pieces of one type . For example , if you lose your only Queen , both of your Bishops , or all eight of your pawns , you lose the
game . Promoted pawns join the species of whatever they promote to . Don ’ t promote your last pawn ( you ’ ll lose ) unless the move involves capturing the last piece of some type , in which case you ’ ll win . There is nothing special about check or checkmate ( though you don ’ t want to lose your only King ), so castling into or through check is perfectly legal . Similarly , since the King isn ’ t particularly special , it is legal to promote pawns to additional Kings .
When playing this game , be careful which minor pieces you trade . For example , if you are going to trade one of your Knights , make sure the other one can ’ t be hunted down .
In this variant , the games tend to be relatively short , and tactics tend to predominate ( so this is good practice for Chess ). In particular , decisive forks are very common , so pay attention !
Monster Chess
“ Monster Chess ” begins as in this diagram
with White to move . The goal is to capture the King . In Chess , White would be hopelessly lost here ( Black could force checkmate ) so to even things up , we allow White to make two moves on every turn . On a given turn , White ’ s first move may be into check , but certainly his second move shouldn ’ t leave his King attacked .
The wK can deliver checkmate on its own ( for example , with the wK safely on e6 and the bK on e8 , White threatens KxK with his two moves and Black has no defense ), so Black must be very careful not to let the wK get too close . Generally , White tries to use the pawns to