CHESS GAMES BY CHRISTIAAN FREELING (CONGO ⌐ DEMIAN FREELING).
PART 00 - PART 12. THIS IS PART 01.
General Principles & Rules
What is a Chess system?
The vast majority of the people considers reality in terms of 'things' rather than principles. Thus, confronted with the term 'Chess', they think of a particular game. A 'Chess variant', in this view, automatically becomes something looking like Chess, but slightly different. Since this is not necessarily true, I prefer the term 'Chess system'.
What then is a Chess system? To answer that question we must consider the common factors in all Chess type games. These are:
>>> There's a playing area called 'the board'.
>>> There is an 'absolute piece', the King - though it may have a different name - which is the
opponent's ultimate target.
>>> There are pieces to ultimately attack this target.
>>> Players move, and must move, in turn.
Implicitly I consider Chess systems a contest between two players. This very sentence is the only one I will waste on three- or more-player versions.
In David Pritchard's The╩Encyclopedia of Chess Variants, where the eleven games of this compilation can also be found, hundreds of different boards are displayed.
In my opinion Chess systems are usually so complicated that they don't need complicated boards. That's why nine of my games, as well as Congo, are played on a square board. Yari Shogi, by its very character, has a 7x9 rectagular board.
A very common 'translation' for a Chess system, is the implementation on a hexagonal board. I did so for Chad, Caòssa, Sjakti, Loonybird and Dragonfly. With the exception of HexChad, I don't think that any of them surpasses the orthogonal game, so I did not include them in this compilation.
Check,checkmate & stalemate
Attacking the opponent's King is called 'giving check'. A King may not move into check and must always parry it the next move. If a King is in check and unable to parry, this is called 'checkmate'. Checkmate usually ends the game, but is important to realize that this is a sophistication based on a state of unavoidable and imminent capture.
It is a sophistication that has my full support:
>>> All my Chess systems do have checkmate as object of the game.
But it has a drawback too: situations may arise where the King is in zugzwang and not in check, but with no other option than to move into check. This is called 'stalemate', and it is a direct consequence of formalizing checkmate. If the object were simply capture and Kings were allowed to commit suicide, the problem would not exist.
This is the case in Congo, invented by Demian Freeling at the age of eight years.
Since the King is not in check, I agree with those who say stalemate can never be a win.
>>> In all my Chess systems, stalemate is a draw.
It depends on the nature of the system whether this constitutes a problem. Rotary knows no stalemate because the King may rotate on its square for a turn. Systems in which pieces are re-entered, Yari Shogi, Dragonfly, Loonybird, never show stalemate in actual play. Neither do Chad & HexChad, and they have been played on a high level for many years at 'Fanatic', the games club of the University of Twente in the Netherlands.
In fact, the only game in this collection that is susceptible to stalemate is Sjakti.
3-fold
>>> Any game in this compilation ends in a draw if the same position appears for the third time,
with the same player to move.
Confined King
In some systems the King is confined to a restricted area. The oldest example is Xiangqi or Chinese Chess. In this compilation Congo, Chad & HexChad feature a confined King.
Restricted King
In Sjakti & Caòssa the King, as long as it is not in check, is a long-range piece. This gives it an unusual liberty and flexibility. In the case of these games there are two factors that counterbalance this freedom of movement: the rule that the King, if in check, is restricted to adjacent squares, and the Atlantis effect (see below).
Mutual Check
In some systems Kings, when facing each other along a file or diagonal, are said to be 'mutually in check'. This situation therefore may not be effectuated by either player. It follows that in these systems the King may offer long range protection against pieces being captured by the opponent's King and may even be the cornerstone in a mating attack. Xiangqi again offers an illustrious precedent.
In this compilation the mutual check rule is featured in Congo, Sjakti, Caòssa & HexChad. It is a beautiful rule that ties the Kings together and should always be considered by any inventor.
I decided for it in structurally simple systems.
Pieces
Generally people have the notion that there should be different pieces and that they should be able to capture one another by displacement. None of this is the case.
Sjakti is a totally 'uniform' system. It has but one kind of piece. Chad & HexChad start out as uniform systems, only allowing a second type of piece by promotion.
In Sjakti pieces do not capture one another at all. In Chad & HexChad the mutual capture of pieces is restricted to very specific and limited conditions.
Not all capture is by displacement either: in Caòssa a new and surprisingly elegant form of capture is introduced - capture by exchange - which is in fact no capture at all.
In Congo the Monkey captures pieces by jumping over them.
Pawns
Pawns are also often considered an implicit part of a Chess system. What can I say? Sjakti, Caòssa, Chad & HexChad do very well without them. They can do without them because in all of them mutual capture of pieces is either restricted or impossible. This is a very valid principle: Chess systems, ultimately, are about pieces attaking the King. There's no fundamental reason why they should be able to attack one another. If they do, however, pawns are needed to initially seperate the forces, lest an onslaught of exchanges would result that ultimately would leave the contestants totally amputated and impotent.
Pawns generally have a forward orientation. There are three types of pawns in this compilation. Yari Shogi features the traditional Shogi pawn with the added power of having the option to 'drop mate'. Congo has a pawn that moves & captures both straight & diagonally forward, and has even limited options to retreat. All other pawns are basically Chess pawns.
Promotion
Sjakti & Caòssa know no promotion. Chad & HexChad have no pawns, but feature piece promotion. In Yari Shogi the pawns and all pieces, with the implicit exception of the King, may promote.
In the other systems only pawns have the right to promote.
The Atlantis Effect
This principle is used, in a different way but to the same effect, in Sjakti & Caòssa, and as far as I know only in Sjakti & Caòssa. It is the tool for minimization because having the squares disappear one by one eventually leaves the King without refuge. Therefore only a few pieces are needed, eventually, for a successful mating attack, as is shown in an especially convincing way in Caòssa.
Inner Balance
This is a requirement for any boardgame. In Chess systems it is a function of the number of distinct pieces and their power. Grand Chess shows a good example by following the harmonic series (i.e. 1, 1+2, 1+2+3, 1+2+3+4, ...). Thus there's one King and three high-ranking officers, six low-ranking officers and ten pawns. I will discuss a counter example in Rotary, the idea of which came from a highly imbalanced game named Ploy, that can also be found in the Encyclopedia.
Problems
I've included a few simple problems with some of the games. Grand Chess has a few more and, because Chess problems are a known field to Chess players, of a greater subtlety. The three problems of six times U.S. champion Pal BenkÜ are published with permission of Games magazine.
The one important game in this compilation is Grand Chess. Anyone who wrote a good Chess program and has half a mind to modify it into a Grand Chess program and put a demo on the Net on a fifty fifty basis regarding the codes, is welcome to contact me at the following address:
Christiaan Freeling
Pollenbrink 181
7544 AW Enschede
The Netherlands
+31 53 769075
Net: freeling@euronet.nl
All games: ⌐ Christiaan Freeling, except Congo: ⌐ Demian Freeling.
