FreeChess is a chess variant that borrows ideas from several other chess
variants, and has a few unique concepts of its own. The underlying
idea is to dissociate movement-abilities from physical pieces, and to allow
these "attributes" to be placed onto the board at will, added to and subtracted
from each other, separated from one another, or even removed from the board
and returned to a player's "attribute reserve". The opening setup is
an empty board, allowing players to create their own opening setup. Thus,
the players have been freed to pursue their dynamic tactical visions as far
as possible: they are no longer limited by discrete, sluggish pieces that
can only disappear from the board. Rule-dictated restrictions are
retained only where necessary to keep the game sharp, well-defined and decisively
winnable. Freechess was invented by Scarmani in 2003.
Setup
The initial board is an empty, 13x13 square board. Each player has
an "attribute reserve", consisting of 13 opawn-attributes, 8 knight-attributes,
5 bishop-attributes, 3 rook-attributes, 2 "combinator" attributes and 1 royal
attribute.
* An opawn (omni directional pawn) attribute confers the ability to move
one or two squares orthogonally in any direction and to capture one square
diagonally in any direction. There is no unidirectionality; thus no
en passant, no pawn promotion, nor any restrictions on placement locations.
* A knight attribute confers the ability to move and capture as a
knight.
* A bishop attribute confers the ability to move and capture as a
bishop.
* A rook attribute confers the ability to move and capture as a rook.
* A combinator attribute confers the ability for a piece's attributes
to be used in parallel during a turn, rather than singly. In a sense,
it could be called the "progressive" attribute: as an example, a knight-bishop
(aka cardinal) may move only either as a bishop or a knight in a single turn.
Contrastingly, a cardinal-combinator in a single turn may make a knight
move, a bishop move, a knight move followed by a bishop move, or a bishop
move followed by a knight move(!). Clearly, a combinator piece is
potentially very powerful - for example it may make multiple captures on
a single turn. There are some subtleties involved with combinator moves
that will be discussed below.
* A royal attribute confers the ability to move one square orthogonally
or diagonally in any direction. A royal piece must move out of or otherwise
evade check if possible; the owner of the royal piece loses the game if
the royal piece is mated. The royal piece can only capture using
king moves. There is no castling, as there is no fixed initial
setup, because the king can be combined with other pieces (through friendly
capture or attribute placement) to gain new movement abilities, and most
of all because FreeChess is intended to be an attacking, tactical game
Note: this game can be played by using 4 conventional chess sets and an
oversized board, with a combinator attribute indicated by an upsidedown
rook. Combination pieces can be indicated by placing several conventional
chess pieces on the same square.
Play
Players take turns doing one and only one of the following: 1) Placing
an attribute on the board, 2) Moving a piece, 3) Splitting up a piece, or
4) Resigning. A player may also offer a draw at the close of his or
her turn, assuming it consisted of 1), 2) or 3).
1) Placing an attribute on the board: An attribute may only be placed
onto a "valid" square. Initially, the entire board is considered "valid."
However, once there is at least one piece of each color on the board,
valid squares are restricted to those squares that are either occupied by,
or reachable by, or attacked by, a piece on the board. An attribute
may be placed onto A) an empty square, B) a square occupied by a friendly
piece, or C) a square occupied by an enemy piece possessing the identical
attribute.
A) An attribute placed onto an empty square becomes
a piece. Thus, an opawn attribute becomes an opawn, a knight attribute
becomes a knight, a bishop attribute becomes a bishop, a rook attribute becomes
a rook, and a royal attribute becomes a king. A combinator attribute
placed onto an empty square becomes an immobile combinator piece; it cannot
move or capture, but it can only be captured by friendly pieces. (Thus
useful for blocking enemy pieces; a combinator-piece combination, however,
can of course be attacked and captured by enemy pieces.)
B) An attribute placed onto a friendly piece is "added"
to the friendly piece. For example, a bishop attribute placed onto
a friendly rook becomes a queen. Likewise, a knight attribute placed
onto a friendly bishop becomes a cardinal. A knight attribute placed
onto a friendly knight becomes a "knight squared", which is a knight-rider
of range two; a knight attribute placed onto a friendly "knight squared" becomes
a "knight cubed" which is a knight-rider of range three. A bishop or
rook attribute placed onto a friendly bishop or rook attribute respectively,
become a "bishop squared" or "rook squared", which move just the same as
their singlet pieces, but are potentially more useful in certain situations.
No combinator attribute can be placed onto a piece with a combinator
attribute.
C) An attribute placed onto an enemy piece with the
identical attribute subtracts from the enemy piece. Thus a knight attribute
placed onto an enemy knight results in the annihilation of the enemy knight;
both knight attributes are removed from the game (i.e., neither is returned
to either player's attribute reserve). A knight attribute placed onto
an enemy cardinal results in the knight-attributes canceling, leaving an
enemy bishop on the square. Again, both knight attributes are removed
from the game. Attributes cannot be placed onto enemy pieces that do
not possess that attribute, so for example a knight attribute cannot be placed
onto an enemy bishop, since it cannot be sensibly subtracted. No combinator
attribute can be placed onto a piece with a combinator attribute. Finally,
it is disallowed to place an attribute onto an enemy piece if the same attribute
was placed on the same piece by the opponent as his or her previous move.
Note that only a single attribute may be placed on the board per turn,
and that one's turn is finished after placing the attribute.
2) Moving a piece: By definition, a piece may only be moved onto
a "valid" square, as described above. Pieces move only according to
their attributes; so for example a knight-opawn can make either a knight's
move or an opawn move; a knight-opawn combinator can move as a knight and/or
opawn in any order. All pieces move as they capture, except for opawns
and their derivative pieces, which, as mentioned above, can move one or
two squares orthogonally but capture one square diagonally in any direction.
Moves onto empty squares are intuitive; however captures are somewhat
more complex.
Pieces capture by moving directly onto the square of another piece. Important:
A player may capture ONLY IF he has a royal piece on the board.
Thus, in the initial stage of the game, a player may place pieces without
having a royal piece on the board, but he or she may not capture, until
he or she has placed his or her royal piece and while it remains on the
board. Pieces may capture A) a friendly piece, or B) an enemy
piece
A) If a piece captures a friendly piece, the two pieces
sum. For example, a knight capturing a friendly bishop becomes a friendly
cardinal on the destination square. One cannot capture a friendly combinator
piece with another friendly combinator piece; it is disallowed for pieces
to possess more than one combinator attribute, and any move which would cause
this to occur is illegal.
B) If a piece captures an enemy piece: first,
all attributes common to the two pieces are cancelled out, and those cancelled
attributes belonging to the capturing piece are returned to the capturing
player's attribute reserve; second, what is left of the captured piece, if
anything, is removed from the board. All attributes of the captured
piece are removed from the game (i.e., they are not returned to either player's
attribute reserve). For example, when a combinator-knight captures
an enemy combinator-cardinal, the following occurs: first the knight attribute
and the combinator attribute cancel out; the attacking combinator-knight
has been wiped out and its knight and combinator attributes sent back to
the attacker's attribute reserve; and the combinator-cardinal has been reduced
to a bishop which is then removed (with the bishop attribute not returning
to either player's attribute reserve), leaving the attacked square empty
and both pieces off the board..
There are some points to be clarified with respect to "combinator" pieces
and multiple-knight pieces. Multiple-knight pieces without combinator
abilities move as limited-range knight-riders, which means that they cannot
capture and then continue to move. Combinator pieces, however, can
capture on potentially intermediate squares, and this has effects on their
ability to make further moves within the turn. If a capture is made
in the middle of a combinator-type move, the piece's attributes are updated
according to the above-described capture procedure, and any further movement
is made according to the pieces remaining unutilized attributes. For
example. if a combinator-cardinal makes a bishop move and captures
an enemy knight, the enemy knight is removed, a knight attribute is returned
to the capturing player's attribute reserve, the capturing combinator-cardinal
becomes a combinator-bishop, and it can make no further moves (since
it has already made a bishop move). However, if a combinator-cardinal
makes a knight move and captures an enemy knight, although it has
again become a combinator-bishop, it can make a further bishop move
in the same turn, if desired (because the piece had not yet made a bishop
move). Analogously, if a combinator-cardinal makes a knight move and
captures a friendly knight, it becomes a combinator-cardinal-knight, and can
further move as a combinator-cardinal to finish the turn, if desired.
If a combinator-cardinal makes a bishop move and captures a friendly knight,
it again becomes a combinator-cardinal-knight but this time it can further
move as a combinator-knight-squared to finish the turn, if desired. A
final note about combinator-kings: kings are allowed to move through or
into check or even capture into check during the course of a multi-part
move, but they are not permitted to end their move in check.
3) Splitting up a piece: A piece can split into constituent attributes
in any desired combination. Any subset of attributes can move - as
a newly created piece - from the originating square to a valid destination
square; or the component attributes can be returned to the player's reserve;
in both cases leaving behind the residual attributes on the original square
as the remaining piece. A selected piece can split up into multiple
different pieces in a single turn, so long as each newly formed "sub-piece"
moves (necessarily) to a valid square or is, (as its constituent attributes),
returned to the splitting player's reserve.
For example, a player with the ludicrously powerful "queen-squared-cardinal-squared-opawn-squared-combinator"
could, in a single move, conceivably split it up into 1) a queen-combinator
on the original square, 2) a queen moved from the original square onto a
second square, 3) a cardinal-opawn moved to a third square, 4) a cardinal
moved to yet a fourth square, and 5) an opawn attribute returned to the
player's reserve. Clearly, building up very strong pieces is desirable,
because not only are they able to move almost anywhere on the board... they
are also able to move to several"almost anywheres" at the same time!
A further detail worth clarifying is that royal pieces may spit
up, so for example, a king in check may avoid check by splitting up such
that the royal attribute is returned to the checked player's attribute reserve.
Note, however, that while that player's royal attribute is not on
the board as a royal piece, that player cannot capture; and further, that
if a player has no pieces left on the board at the end of his or her turn,
he or she loses the game. Thus, removing the royal piece from the board
is not a way to indefinitely postpone losing the game.
Pieces
Possible pieces are too numerous to list, but a basic run-through may help
solidify the understanding of combination pieces and higher-degree "purebreds"
vs. combinator pieces.
Several basic combinations are already familiar: the rook-bishop is better
known as the queen; the rook-knight is known as the marshall, and the knight-bishop
is known as the cardinal, the queen-knight is known as the amazon. However,
the opawn is not a familiar piece, and in combination with other attributes
it creates a new series of fairly strong, novel pieces: the opawn-knight,
opawn-bishop, opawn-rook, opawn-cardinal and opawn-marshall, etc.
What if one combines several attributes of the same type in a single piece?
Then one obtains the opawn-squared, knight-squared, bishop-squared,
rook squared etc. The opawn-squared is still limited to capturing
only on adjacent diagonal squares (it cannot capture twice, because, like
a knight-rider, it is not a combinator piece.) Otherwise, it may move
up to four spaces in any orthogonal direction without capture. The
opawn-cubed can capture one square diagonally or move up to six spaces in
any orthogonal direction without capture; the fourth-degree-opawn up to eight
non-capturing spaces in a single orthogonal direction, and so on. The
knight-squared is a knight-rider with a range of two knight moves, the knight-cubed
is a knight-rider with a range of three knight moves, and so on. The
bishop-squared and rook-squared do not have additional movement capability
over their singlet counterparts; their potential advantage is retaining their
movement ability should the opponent place a bishop or rook attribute onto
them. They are also possible intermediates on the way to a bishop-squared
or rook-squared combinator. However, I think they are not particularly
strong pieces for the number of attributes they use up, and in some sense
the principle of hybrid-vigor applies when combining attributes. An
amazon is certainly stronger than a rook-cubed, for example.
Kings can be combined with any number of other attributes to create royal
pieces with enhanced movement abilities. The ability to create a very
mobile king is necessary, given the very powerful attacking pieces with
which it may have to contend.. However, it is not wise to sink too
many attributes into the royal piece, since regardless of any movement
capabilities it may acquire, it may only capture as a king. This
implies that a non-combinator royal piece cannot deliver check to an enemy
king, and it is not very useful as an offensive piece.
The combinator attribute is the most powerful attribute in the game. By
itself, it creates an immobile piece that cannot be captured by the enemy
(useful for blocking attacks, or putting right next to the enemy king <grin>),
but it can be captured by friendly pieces (useful for tactical combinations!).
In combination with just a few other attributes, it can create pieces
of truly obscene power. For example, a combinator-opawn-squared is
already a very strong piece. In addition to being able to move up to
four squares orthogonally without capture, it is capable of capturing any
piece adjacent to it and also attacks a good number of squares two and three
king-moves away. When capturing pieces diagonally adjacent to it, it
can first capture and then move orthogonally, or first move orthogonally
and then capture, thus choosing its destination-square. Lastly, it
can extend its move by capturing a friendly piece, and using the additional
attribute(s). Clearly, the combinator-opawn-squared is much more powerful
than an opawn-squared; even approaching the strength of a normal queen. A
combinator-amazon is a terrifying piece capable of reaching almost every
square on the chessboard; simply by being on the board it probably places
the enemy king in check.
A final technical note which gives an idea of how complicated things become
when combinators get involved: A combinator-king with one or two additional
attributes can be very powerful; for example, it can deliver check to the
opponent's king - without itself being in check, and despite being restricted
to capturing via kings-move throughout the course of the combinator move.
How? Well, so long as the king can execute a combinator move which
1) captures the opponent king (via a king move) and 2) still ends the turn
without itself being in check, then it is checking the opponent king. Note:
combinator kings may move through check in the course of their move, but
may NEVER end the turn in check, and they must ALWAYS move out of check
if they are placed into it by the other player. In fact, avoiding
check takes precedence over winning the game; one cannot make any move that
would win the game but would leave one's king in check. This rule
is to make the game more forcing, avoid losses by oversight of a possible
king-capture, and avoid some sticky questions about the legality of various
combinator-king moves, checks, and captures (e.g.. does a king capturing another
king destroy both king attributes, thus causing both players to lose? answer:
you never capture the enemy king in practice; the enemy king must move out
of check somehow, and if it cannot, the opponent is mated and you have won;
however you cannot make any move that would place you into check, nor can
you check using a capturing threat which you cannot legally execute, such
as with an absolutely pinned piece or king that cannot capture the enemy
king without ending the turn in check) The grammar is convoluted, but
the rule *should* make sense (if you read it a few dozen times.)
Objective
A player loses when 1) He has no pieces on the board at the end of his
turn. 2) He has no legal placements or moves. 3) He has a royal
piece on the board, and it is checkmated*. 4) He resigns. 5) He
runs out of time.
And of course, a player wins when her opponent loses. A draw occurs
only through threefold repetition, by insufficient material to win, or by
agreement between the players.
*This is a special case of condition two, because before all else,
one must move out of check.