My Favourite Chess Variants

What is a Chess Variant?

There are some quite interesting games played with a chessboard and pieces apart from chess. This is a not too serious look at these so-called chess variants.

Some of them can be played on the Internet Chess Servers. Here is an overview of some of them, including my favourites.

Some have very different rules than chess. Others have only a single rule change.

Why learn about Variants?

Playing a variant can be a light hearted form of entertainment after playing competitive chess. Some are easy to play, some can be highly complex.

Some variants have instructional value, especially for juniors. Some variants help teach the ability to see ahead and see around.

Types of Chess Variants

Some use all or some of the standard chess pieces. This book will mostly concentrate on those variants which use a standard chess board and do not need non-chess pieces.

There are many variants which use different types of boards. Some are not square. For example, they may be rectangular or Cross-shaped. A few are square though smaller than 8x8, while others are larger. This book will concentrate on variants you can play with a normal chessboard and set. In some cases an additional board or pieces are needed. You will not need to create new types of pieces or boards.

Most variants are two player games. Some are solitaire games, while others are multi-player.

Some variants require a lot of skill while others are much simpler than standard chess. Some variants have a chance element.

Overview of Rules

This is not an encyclopedia of the all the many chess variants. Many of the variants have variations in the rules. This book is not a reference of the rules. It is an overview of variants I have learned, mostly from word of mouth.

Included are:

• Rules
• Tips
• and some sample games of some of the more interesting chess variants.

Knight and Four Pawns Puzzle

The White Knight moves to every square on the board, except those occupied or controlled by a Black pawn.

Nc2 Na3 Nb1

The Knight moves to b1.

Tricky King Pawn Openings

Understanding tricky openings can help you sometimes win quickly and avoid losing quickly. Sometimes its the other way round, either way they can be great fun.

The Open game (1.e4 e5) offers better chances for an early tactical skirmish than any other openings. Both players have made a first move that activates their pieces as much as possible. Its also likely both sides will castle quicker than after 1.d4.

This book is designed to give an overview of tricky openings. It is not meant to be an exhaustive analysis of every tricky opening. It is meant to make readers aware of some of the tricky openings that exist. You are encouraged to research openings in depth that you wish to play.

What Is A Tricky Opening?

Tricky openings vary in their soundness. Some offer equal chances, others are inferior against best play. Whether they are worth playing depends on the context. It depends on the strengths of the players, the time limit and the seriousness of the game. In unrated blitz games, it is worth playing any tricky opening that interests you. In games where rating points, tournament places etc are in stake, then whether to play a risky opening and which one may need to be made carefully.

Tricky openings can be introduced by either player. Some tricky openings can be met with even trickier responses.

Some players play the same opening over and over. This was more common in the pre-computer era. These days it sets you up to be met with well prepared opponents who have used databases and engines to study your tricky opening. If you vary your openings, you keep your opponent’s guessing. If you know you opening is someone who doesn’t bother preparing, then you may not need to.

What are some tricky openings?

Balanced, including symmetrical positions tend to lead to solid openings. Unbalancing the position, especially with gambits and sacrifices, tends to lead to tactical dynamic positions. Both sides castling kingside early is more likely to lead to a quiet game. Castling on opposite sides or one or both kings not castling at all, tends to lead to a more dynamic game. Open positions tend to more tactical than closed positions, though some closed positions can be quite tactical.

Why play tricky openings?

Tricky openings tend to lead to more interesting positions, at least in the early part of the game. You may play tricky openings just for fun. Playing tricky openings for fun can be especially good in social games or blitz games.

You may play tricky openings to practice your tactics and play in dynamic positions. They may help you understand the initiative better.

You may play tricky openings to increase your chances of winning. This is especially the case if your opponent knows less about the opening than you do!

You may want to be prepared if an opponent plays a tricky opening on you.

GM Nigel Short gave a lecture in Adelaide in 2016. His topic was the Evans gambit, which definitely falls in the category of tricky openings. He said to club players,
Don’t play something dull like the Berlin defence to the Lopez (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 Nf6) which often leads to an early queen exchange. Play sexy chess.

Types of tricky openings

Tricky openings vary from lines where White is taking no risk at all, but play is tricky, to openings that take huge risk, like the crazy Halloween attack (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.Nxe5!?)

White and Black tricky openings

Either White or Black can initiate a tricky variation. Sometimes a tricky opening move can be countered with a tricky reply.

Inventing your own tricky openings

The more tricky opening moves you become familiar with, the easier it will be to stump your opponents with your own outrageous moves.

1.e4 e5 2.Nc3 Nf6 3.f4 d5 4.fxe5 Nxe4 5.d3

...Bb4

Offering a piece.

6.dxe4 Qh4+ 7.Ke2 Bxc3 8.bxc3

...Qg4+

Its equal. Don’t play 5...Bb4 if you don’t want a draw!

How I learned Chess

This is a memoir of some of the highlights of some of my chess experiences as a junior. I will take you on a journey from the time I learned the moves at the age of seven until I completed secondary school.

It is from an era before mobile phones, Internet, chess databases and chess engines. It was the days of black and white television and milk carts drawn by horses. It was when you could play correspondence chess without any concern an opponent may be getting assistance from a computer.

It happened in a time and place that formal chess coaching was almost non-existent. In those days people learned chess from books. It happened in a city with a library that was home to the world’s largest collection of chess books.

Its story of learning through books and magazines, through playing over master games, doing chess puzzles, playing blitz and correspondence chess, learning from one’s own mistakes and learning from others. For those on the path to improving their understanding of chess it may be possible to make a few insights.

It includes highlights of games from state Junior championships, national junior championships, club games, weekenders and other types of tournaments. Some games are rather unusual.

It includes games with various national champions, two world chess champions and a world correspondence chess champion.

My tournament experience began with the State Under 14 and includes the journey to the national junior title. Shortly after completed school I played overseas representing Australian in the first Asian Teams championship.

I was White against Steve Lewinsky, who was the State U16 champion.

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 c5 4.d5 d6 5.Bg5 a6 6.e3 Be7 7.Bd3 exd5 8.cxd5 Nxd5 9.Nxd5 Bxg5 10.Nf3 Bg4 11.Qa4+ Bd7 12.Qe4+ Be7 13.Nxe7 Qxe7 14.Qxb7 Bc6 15.Qc8+ Qd8 16.Qg4 Qa5+ 17.Nd2 O-O 18.h4 Nd7 19.Qf5 g6 20.Qg5 Ne5 21.Be2 f5 22.h5 Rab8 23.hxg6 Nxg6 24.Qh6 Qc7 25.O-O-O

White has been attacking ferociously for some time.

...Bxg2? 26.Rh2

...Bd5

This pawn grab is not good. White could play Nc4 and Nxd6 or Rxd6 with a strong attack.

How to Write a Chess Program

There are a number of reasons why you may be interested in how a chess program is written:

• You are learning programming and interested in learning something different.
• You are a programmer who is interesting in developing their programming experience.
• You are a chess enthusiast and would like to improve your chess by learning how chess programs work.
• You are interested in developing a chess program and playing against it.
• You are interested in developing a chess program and having it play other engines.

You do need to be an expert programmer to understand this book. The code is written as simply as possible. The code is designed to be simple even for intermediate and even novice programmers.

If you are not a programmer, but am interested in chess, this book may be of interest.

The book includes the source code for a complete chess engine. The program can be compiled using a freely downloadable compiler. You can alter the code and see if you can make it stronger.

The engine is strong enough to beat most social players.

Features of the engine include:

• The ability to load positions.
• The ability to play in chess engine tournaments, with programs such as Arena.
• Its very fast.
• It displays the best line of play for both sides.
• Detects reality of opponent’s pieces.
• Detects checkmate.
• Detects draws by repetition, 50 move rule, statemate or reduction of material.

Evaluation

The engine evaluates elements of a position including:

• Material.
• Piece position.
• King safety.
• Pawn structure.
• Passed pawns.

Search

The engine uses a standard alpha-beta minimax search including:

• Cut offs.
• Move ordering.
• History moves,
• Hash tables.
• Extensions.
• Reductions.
• Capture search.

And much more…

*/
int knight_score[64] = 
{
	-30, -20, -10,  -8,  -8, -10, -20, -30,
	-16, -6,   -2,   0,   0,   -2, -6, -16,
	-8,   -2,   4,   6,   6,   4,   -2, -8,
	-5,   0,   6,   8,   8,   6,   0, -5,
	-5,   0,   6,   8,   8,   6,   0, -5,
	-10,   -2,   4,   6,   6,   4,   -2, -10,
	-20, -10,   -2,   0,   0,   -2, -10, -20,
	-150, -20, -10, -5, -5, -10, -20, -150
};
/*

The knight gets stronger as it approaches the centre. The knight tends to be very weak in a corner on the opponent’s side. It is likely to be trapped there.

The Joy of Chess Programming

This is a memoir of my experiences with creating my own chess engine. It begins with first experiences with computer chess from books, magazines, movies and dedicated chess computers.

I witnessed a player by the name of Grant Crocker, playing 1.e3 and forced ChessChallenger to reply with 1...f5 (the Dutch defence). He then quickly won with 2.Qh5+?! g6 2.Be2 ?! gxh5??? 3.Bxh5#.

It progresses to when I had enough knowledge to write an amateur engine and was able to compete in computer chess tournaments.

Eventually my engine was strong enough to reach about 2400 ELo strength. It is able to find Fischers ...Be6 in the famous Game of the Century in a fraction of a second.

It gives insights into how chess engines work and how they select a move.

There are numerous tips on how we human players can learn from how computers play.

There are a number of reasons why you may be interested in how a chess program is written.

If so, you may be interested in my book How to Write a Chess Program.

I have another book on computer chess called Think Like a Computer which includes a number of games with engines playing engines at a shallow depth. This illustrates how engines evaluate positions.

Think Like a Computer

Computer chess has had a large impact on chess in the last two decades. Players have access to databases containing millions of games , they can even look up games played by a potential opponent. The Internet allows players to play fast games against players all around the world. Games can be watched live as they are being played. I have written several books on computer chess.

Computer chess programs (or chess-engines) have become very strong. Not only can be used as practice, they can be used to analyse games or study openings. Books have been written on how a player can study with the assistance of a chess engine.

In the 1970s there was a popular chess book called Think Like a Grandmaster by Soviet GM Alexander Kotov. He later wrote Play Like a Grandmaster and Train Like a Grandmaster. He wrote from his own experience and other grandmasters he rubbed shoulders with. He wrote on tree of analysis, candidate moves, avoiding blunders, when not to analyse, positional ideas, endgames etc. He gave ordinary chess players an insight into the mind of a grandmaster. To some extent this book helped them to think like a grandmaster.

These days strong computer programs (called chess engines) are very strong indeed. The top engines currently have ELO ratings above 3500.They can often analyse faster and more reliably than strong grandmaster.

We have Think Like a Grandmaster so why not have Think Like a computer?

There are many things we can learn from the strengths and weaknesses of chess engines.

What can we learn from the way computers play?

The author has been writing his own hobby chess engines since the 1990s. This book is designed to impart knowledge gained from this experience to chess players of all levels.

Note that this book is not about using computers to practice with or study chess. Its about what chess-players can learn from how computers play chess. Its also for readers who may be curious to learn something about how computers play chess. You do not need to be computer programmer to learn from how computers play chess.

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 d5 4.cxd5 Nxd5 5.e4 Nxc3 6.bxc3 Bg7 7.Nf3 c5 8.Be3 Qa5

9.Qd2

This is the main line, though StockFish prefers Bd2.

...O-O

StockFish likes this.

10.Bc4

This does not fit in with Nf3. The knight needs to be on e2. StockFish likes Rc1. One advantage is that allows Nc6 to be met by d5.

...Nc6

StockFish likes this.

Play Like a World champion series

This book is similar to the Rate Your Chess series. It uses a system I developed for coaching for private students. The reader selects a move to play from up to 4 choices. The score for each game is out of 100.

This series of books is based on the following World champions in chronological order.

• Steinitz
• Lasker
• Capablanca
• Alekhine
• Euwue
• Botvinnik
• Smyslov
• Tal
• Petrosian
• Spassky
• Fischer
• Karpov
• Kasparov
• Anand
• Kramnik
• Carlsen

Each book features a different world champion. How many of their moves can you guess?

• 91-100 2500+
• 81-90 2400 - 2499
• 71-80 2200 - 2399
• 61-70 2000 - 2199
• 51-60 1800 - 1999
• 41-50 1600 - 1799
• 31-40 1400 - 1599
• 21-30 1200 - 1399
• 11-20 1000 - 1199
• 0 -10 below 1000

The challenge is to increase your rating with each game!

You can read a sample of one of the books by clicking on an image.