Can a Chess Variant Replace Chess?

The short answer is yes because it has already happened back in 1495. This is when the queen and bishops got the full length of the board, and the pawns got to advance one or two spaces on their first turn. So, we would like to inquire on whether it can happen again (and what it would take to pull this off).

Yes, of course, it can happen again. But, it would take a special game to do it, and it would take some marketing to do it as well.

Now, we must bear in mind the words of James B. Conant who said in Science and Common Sense that we never part with a theory unless we have something to replace it with. We live with it warts and all until we get this replacement.

Chess has a few of these warts. One is the endless memorization required for the opening. This can get to be upwards of 20 moves in all lines for top players. I saw a video of Bobby Fischer promoting his Fischer Random Chess game (also known as Chess960). He said he hated chess because he “knows what it is.” He said you have to go out to move 19 or something like that to find an improvement in the game. It turns out on Agadmator’s chess channel on youtube, he says things like “and it is on move right that we have a completely new game” all the time. So, Fischer’s 19th move statement is a bit unfounded. But, the spirit of his claim is true, and players do “prepare” novel lines all the time to spring on their opponent’s when needed.

Another wart is the weak pieces of chess. Masters know how to trade down in an endgame to leave the opponent with no winning chances from a materialistic standpoint.

Stalemate is another such wart with chess. The object of the game (capturing the king) should be the only “absolute” in the game. The must move rule and the inviolateness of the king rule collide to produce a stalemate position that usurps the object of the game. Stalemate and its cousin zugzwang need to go if we are to have a well built game capable of superseding chess.

You can check out many chess variants at www.chessvariants.com. There are groups on Facebook, such as “Board Game Revolution” or “Abstract Nation” or “The Clever Game Inventor” (that last one is my Facebook group).

After you survey the landscape, you’ll find that it needs to be on an 8x8 board. Bigger boards can intimidate newcomers. Preferably, it shouldn’t add more kinds of pieces, which is just more things to remember about the pieces. This leaves us with just a few games to consider: Chess960, Fighting Chess, Hello-6, and Dice Chess 8. The first one is Fischer’s game invention. The other three are mine.

Hello-6 and Dice Chess 8 are available at The Game Crafter site: thegamecrafter.com/games/hello-6 or thegamecrafter.com/games/dice-chess-8. I will declare they both are too abstract, even though both wonderfully exceed chess in complexity (Hello-6 spectacularly so and also always ends on the 9th turn, which makes it a complex yet very brief game). So, this leaves Fighting Chess and Chess960.

The most popular chess variant today is Fischer’s Chess960. It is supported by FIDE, the governing body of chess. But, it is far and away lagging behind chess in popularity. The reason for this very likely is that manyof the starting positions for Chess960 are “bad,” according to Vladimir Kramnik (a former chess champion of the world).

Chess960 has solved the opening memorization problem, but it will suffer the draw death in due time because it has done nothing to strengthen the pieces or pawns while still having stalemate.

Chess960 has had its chance and failed against chess. The last hope, then, is Fighting Chess.

I have another article here on Medium stating the rules of Fighting Chess. But, you can get them on my author page at Amazon: amazon.com/author/tonyberard (in addition to my wonderful books). You can also call up the Fighting Chess app on the Dagaz Server at: http://games.dtco.ru/profile where there’s a link called “Rules.” You can play Fighting Chess and many other games there, including Chess960.

Articles I post like this on Medium Hopefully will help the causeof Fighting Chess. It is a whole new wilderness to be explored. Happy gaming, and I’ll see you on the Dagaz Server!! I will play anyone there, and we’re trying to get some games to go in our upcoming book on Fighting Chess. Do you want your game featured in our book?