Chess Variants/Capablanca Chess

tright rd nd ad bd qd kd bd cd nd rd pd pd pd pd pd pd pd pd pd pd pl pl pl pl pl pl pl pl pl pl rl nl al bl ql kl bl cl nl rl Starting position of Capablanca chess Introduction Capablanca Chess (also formatted as Capablanca's chess) is a term that refers to a family of chess variants played on a 10 by 8 board with two new pieces per player - the chancellor, which combines the powers of the rook and the knight, and the archbishop, which combines the powers of the bishop and the knight. The name refers to both the family as a whole and the family's most notable member. History tleft rd ad nd bd qd kd bd nd cd rd pd pd pd pd pd pd pd pd pd pd pl pl pl pl pl pl pl pl pl pl rl al nl bl ql kl bl nl cl rl Starting position of Carrera's chess The basic idea of a 10 by 8 variant of chess with the chancellor and archbishop has a long history. The earliest such variant that we know of dates back to 1617, when the Italian chess player Pietro Carrera published a book called Il Gioco degli Scacchi (The Game of Chess), which contained a description of a 10 by 8 variant with two new pieces of his own creation - the champion, which combined the moves of the rook and the knight, and the centaur, which combined the moves of the bishop and the knight. It is believed his primary motivation for the creation of this variant was the limitations of chess opening theory at the time. Carrera's chess placed the centaur between the queen's knight and queen's rook, and the champion between the king's knight and king's rook. He does not appear to have been concerned with structural weakness in the opening setup, since in Carerra's chess the pawn on the b-file, in front of the champion, is completely unprotected at game start. tright rd nd bd cd qd kd ad bd nd rd pd pd pd pd pd pd pd pd pd pd pl pl pl pl pl pl pl pl pl pl rl nl bl cl ql kl al bl nl rl Starting position of Bird's chess Just over 250 years later, English player Henry Bird proposed his own 10 by 8 variant. This variant differed from Carrera's in the placement of the new pieces - the rook/knight combination, called the guard, was placed between the queen and queen's bishop, and the bishop/knight combination, called the equerry, between the king and king's bishop. The theoretical benefit of Bird's setup is that the new pieces' pawns are very important to the opening theory of Bird's chess, just as important as the pawns of the royal pieces, and leading to a more strategically oriented game. Capablanca chess was created sometime in the 1920s by former World Chess Champion José Raúl Capablanca, from whom the variant gets its name. Capablanca feared that professional chess would eventually reach a state of draw death, meaning games between grandmasters would always end in draws. He looked to Bird's chess as a solution, and modified the opening setup. He proposed two opening setups - his final revision places the bishop/knight combination between the queen's knight and queen's bishop, and the rook/knight combination between the king's knight and king's bishop. Concerning the new pieces, it was Capablanca himself who introduced the names chancellor and archbishop for the rook/knight and bishop/knight combinations respectively, and these names have since become the most common names for the two pieces. One of the variant's most important supporters was German-American player Edward Lasker, who assisted in development of the rules. According to Lasker:... I played many test games with Capablanca, and they rarely lasted more than twenty or twenty-five moves. We tried boards of 10×10 squares and 10×8 squares, and we concluded that the latter was preferable because hand-to-hand fights start earlier on it. Rules Capablanca chess adds two new pieces to the game - the chancellor and the archbishop. The chancellor (25x25px) combines the powers of the rook and the knight. It may slide horizontally or vertically like a rook, or jump like a knight, but not both in one move. The archbishop (25x25px) combines the powers of the bishop and the knight. It may slide diagonally like a bishop, or jump like a knight, but not both in one move. tleft xx xo xx xo xo xx xo xx xx xx cl xx xx xx xx xo xx xo xo xx xo xx xx The chancellor may moves to any square marked with a cross, or jump to any square marked with a dot tleft xx xx xx xo xo xx xo xx xx xo al xo xx xx xo xx xo xo xx xx xx xx The archbishop may moves to any square marked with a cross, or jump to any square marked with a dot The other pieces all retain their normal moves. When the king castles, it moves three squares towards the rook rather than two as in standard chess. A pawn is allowed to promote to a chancellor or archbishop alongside the usual promotion options. All other rules remain the same as in standard chess. Sub-variants Capablanca chess has inspired a number of 10 by 8 variants that feature different opening setups. The most notable are: Gothic chess (2000) by Ed Trice board 10 1 no no tleft rl nl bl ql cl kl al bl nl rl Grotesque chess (2004) by Fergus Duniho board 10 1 no no tleft rl bl ql nl kl cl nl al bl rl Paulovich's chess (2004) by David Paulovich board 10 1 no no tleft cl rl nl bl al kl bl nl rl ql Ladorean chess (2005) by Bernhard U. Hermes board 10 1 no no tleft rl bl ql nl kl al nl cl bl rl Embassy chess (2005) by Kevin Hill board 10 1 no no tleft rl nl bl ql kl cl al bl nl rl Univers chess (2006) by Fergus Duniho board 10 1 no no tleft rl bl nl cl ql kl al nl bl rl Schoolbook chess (2006) by Sam Trenholme board 10 1 no no tleft rl ql nl bl al kl bl nl cl rl tright rd qd bd nd nd kd ad bd cd rd pd pd pd pd pd pd pd pd pd pd pl pl pl pl pl pl pl pl pl pl rl ql bl nl nl kl al bl cl rl One of the valid starting positions for Capablanca random chess Another notable sub-variant of Capablanca chess is Capablanca random chess, created in 2005 by Reinhard Scharnagl, a user of the chess variant website The Chess Variant Pages, as part of a chess variant design competition for the website's tenth anniversary. The variant extends the random setup concept of Fischer Random Chess to Capablanca Chess, with the following restrictions for the setup: The bishops must start on opposite colour squares. The queen and archbishop must start on opposite colour squares. The king must start between the two rooks to make castling possible. All of the pawns must be protected. The starting position cannot be the same as that of Gothic chess. This is to avoid violating any patents, as Gothic chess is protected by a patent in the United States. There are 12,118 possible starting positions in Capablanca random chess.