Knighted chess is a family of over twenty Westernchess variants which incorporate two new pieces. The family includes Capablanca chess (usually played on a 10×8 board), Seirawan chess (on a 8x8 board),Embassy chess,Grand chess (10x10 board), andTrice's chess. The two new pieces combine the powers of knight with that of bishop or rook, hence the term "knighted chess" as used by Cazaux & Knowlton.[1][2][3] Some authors also use the term "Capablanca chess" to refer to the whole family of variants that add these two new pieces.[4]
The new compound pieces are thearchbishop or princess
which combines moves of abishop and aknight, and thechancellor or empress
which combines moves of arook and aknight. These new pieces (which go by various other names depending on the variant) allow new strategies and possibilities that provide an interesting change to game of chess while also retaining the original style and aesthetic. For example, the archbishop by itself can checkmate a lone king in a corner (when placed diagonally with one square in between).[1] A few variants also add another compound piece, theamazon (queen+knight).
The first knighted chess variant was introduced by Italian chess playerPietro Carrera in his 1617 bookIl Gioco de gli Scacchi (The Game of Chess).[5] Various similar games appears throughout the 18th and 19th centuries with the new knighted pieces. In the 20th century,World Chess ChampionJosé Raúl Capablanca (1888–1942) also promoted a knighted chess variant now called Capablanca chess. Capablanca was concerned with how high level chess was overly reliant on extensive memorization and study ofchess openings and their variations. He feared that eventually most high level games would end in draws because of this. This threat of "draw death" for chess was his main motivation for developing and promoting a new chess variant.[6] Later board game designers likeChristian Freeling also attempted to promote different knighted chess variants.
Several chess grandmasters played and commented on knighted chess variants throughout the 20th century.Alexander Alekhine is reported to have played Neo-chess.[7] The American grandmasterYasser Seirawan designed his own variant to be played on a standard chessboard (Seraiwan chess). The Soviet grandmasterVictor Korchnoi is known to have enjoyed playingJanus Chess, and is quoted as having said "I like playing Janus Chess because one can show more creativity than in normal chess."[8]
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In 1617, theSyracusan priest and chess playerPietro Carrera (1573-1647) published a bookIl Gioco degli Scacchi (The Game of Chess), which contained a description of a chess variant played on an 8×10 board, which he appears to be using for the purpose of conserving the classical chess structure while inserting the new pieces.[10] He placed new pieces between a rook and a knight. Carrera called them the campione ("champion", called thechancellor in Capablanca chess) and centauro ("centaur",archbishop in Capablanca chess). The "champion" combines the movement of the rook and knight while the centaur combines the bishop and knight movements.[5] Of these, the new piece Chess ideally wants is the weaker centaur, having it that pawns are easier to get out of the way of diagonals than to get out of the way of files.
The centaur was placed on thequeenside and champion on thekingside, these being pieces which he appears to have invented for the purpose of the book, between which the centaur that combines the bishop and knight movements appears more clearly to be his invention, as he mentions previously odds where the weaker player’s king or queen has the knight’s move and it is logical to assume he might merely have overlooked the usage of odds where the weaker player’s (queen’s) rook has the knight’s move as a weaker version of the Amazon odds.[11][12][13]
His likely primary motivation for the design was either the limitations ofopening theory in this time or that he was just following the logic ofPedro Damiano andRuy López de Segura that already assumed the logic of chess playing out to the game being about the second player’s response to the King’s or queen’s pawn opening, and even deeper, the first player’s response to the second’s immediate defense against them establishing the ideal pawn center, to its inevitable conclusion or that he considered it improper to play with afairy piece, specifically a royal crowned Knight, merely by way of handicap and he was not as concerned with avoiding structural weaknesses in the new game’s starting position created by a potential new piece standing on a given file, as with the archbishop between the knight and the rook leaving its own pawn unprotected.[14]
Carrera used the namesCentauro (centaur) instead of archbishop, andCampione (champion) instead of chancellor.[15] Coincidentally, he could have placed the doubleton ofItalian or Spanish Draughts, games which he even mentioned in passing in course of discussing theorigin of chess,[16] between the knight and the rook and left the new piece’s pawn unprotected from anything but itself, thus improving marginally upon placing the archbishop there. Though he was a good chess theoretician, he appears strangely unconcerned about the theoretical benefits and detriments of each possible setup, and the major theoretical detriment of the setup he chose is that the archbishop is thus mainly important to the opening theory of the game in the negative sense that it is necessary to get it out of the way of queenside castling, that is, when playing his variant adapted to modern rules.
Another early knighted chess variant was played in 18th century India. This "Hyderabad decimal chess" was first described in a 1790s manuscript fromHyderabad. It was later described in Murray’s 1913History of Chess (pp. 346-347). The game included three new knighted pieces: one wazir (bishop+knight), one zurāfa (queen+knight) and two dabbābas (rook+knight) and was played on a 10x10 board.[17]
The 19th century saw further similar variants with extra pieces developed.Das Schachspiel, seine Gattungen und Abarten (The Game of Chess, its Types and Varieties, 1840) by Ludwig Tressau of Leipzig, the first modern book on chess variants, discusses two similar chess variants with knighted pieces:Kaiserspiel andSultanspiel.Kaiserspiel was played on a 10x10 board with two additional pieces, one commander (queen+knight) and one adjutant” (bishop+knight).Sultanspiel meanwhile expanded the board to 11x11 and added the marshal (rook+knight).[17][18]
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In 1874, the English chess playerHenry Bird (known as the inventor of the f4Bird's Opening) proposed a further variant on Carrera's game in an issue of theCity of London Chess Magazine.[18] The only significant difference was the opening setup. The new pieces were now between the bishops and the royal pair, the archbishop close to the king, the chancellor close to the queen. The queen's bishop's pawn is not protected in the initial setup. Bird used the namesequerry instead of archbishop, andguard instead of chancellor.[18] The theoretical benefit of this setup is that the new pieces’ pawns are thus very important to the opening theory of the game, equally to the king’s and queen's pawns. This makes the chancellor‘s pawn a pair for the queen's pawn as leading to a more strategically oriented game from the nature of the chancellor.
There were also various other lesser known European chess variants that also slightly enlarged the board and introduced knighted pieces. One of these was a chess variant introduced byJohn Manners, 3rd Duke of Rutland (1696–1779), which used a 10x14 squares board with the following extra pieces: theconcubine (combinesrook and knight), two crowned rooks (rooks with the added power of taking a diagonal step), two extra bishops, an extra knight, and six extra pawns. This game became popular among several leading players of the time likeAndré Danican Philidor andAbraham Janssen.[20]
The chancellor piece also appeared in Benjamin R. Foster's chancellor chess variant played on a 9x9 board. First publicized in theSt Louis Globe-Democrat (12 February 1887), which states that the invention "created a furore in the chess world heretofore unknown." Foster published a booklet promoting and explaining the game in 1889.[21]
The Cuban chess masterJosé Raúl Capablanca (1888–1942) also promoted a his own "Capablanca chess" (or Capablanca's chess) variant in a series of talks, interviews and articles.[6][22][7] These suggestions appeared as early as a 1926 article in the CubanRevista BimestreCubana.[7] Capablanca chess attracted some attention due to its promotion by one of the world's greatest chess players at the time, but it still failed to reach widespread popularity.[6]
The main impulse behind Capablanca's promotion of this variant was his belief that high level chess was becoming too reliant on memorization and "encyclopedic knowledge" of chess openings and positions. Capablanca feared that this would eventually lead to most high level games ending in forced draws or at least becoming too reliant on following prepared opening variations learned by rote.[23] This concern was also shared by his friend Emmanuel Lasker according to Lasker's ownMeinWettkampf mit Capablanca.[7]
Capablanca proposed two opening setups for Capablanca chess. His final revision placed the archbishop between thequeen's knight andqueen's bishop; the chancellor between theking's knight andking's bishop.[24][25]
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In Capablanca chess, the king moves three squares whencastling instead of moving two squares as in standard chess. A pawn canpromote to archbishop or chancellor in addition to the regular promotion options in standard chess.[25] Unlike orthodox chess, each king, instead of each queen, starts on a square of its own color (the white king on a light square; the black king on a dark square).
Capablanca initially experimented with a 10×10 board size with a different initial setup and where pawns could advance up to three squares on their first move. After some laterplay-testing however, he also promoted a variant on a 10x8 board.Edward Lasker wrote:[26]
... 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.
Lasker was one of the few supporters of this new variant and he helped play-test the game with Capablanca.[23] HungariangrandmasterGéza Maróczy also played some games with Capablanca (who got the better of him). British championWilliam Winter thought that there were too many strong pieces, making theminor pieces less relevant. Capablanca's proposition was also criticized by other contemporary chess players in print, includingMax Euwe andSiegbert Tarrasch. The debate was carried out in newspapers like theManchester Guardian.[7]
The new piece namesarchbishop (Spanish:arzobispo, originally named chancellor) andchancellor (Spanish:canciller, originally named marshall, followed by marshal) were introduced by Capablanca himself.[27] These names are still used in most modern variants of Capablanca Chess.
The knighted chess family continued to add new variants well into the late 20th century. There are different types of knighted chess variants. One class of variants use the regular 8x8 chessboard of 64 squares, while another category uses larger non-standard board sizes or types (10x10 or 10x8). Apart from these changes, most variants do not change the standard rules ofchess.
There have been numerous attempts to modify and improve on Capablanca chess. Most of these add relatively minor changes, such as changing the starting positions. Various game designers and chess players have commented on how the starting position of Capablanca's original variant leave the pawns on the i file undefended, creating a significant weakness that can be exploited.[28] Because of this, several chess variants postdating Capablanca chess were designed with initial arrangements where all pawns are protected by at least one piece; these include Universal chess, Grand Chess, Embassy chess, Trice's chess, Grotesque chess, Ladorean chess, Schoolbook chess, and Univers chess. The creators of these variants felt that leaving any pawn undefended in the initial setup created an easily exploitable weakness that needed to be resolved.
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Variants which rely on the standard 8x8 chessboard include the following:[29][30]
Variants which use larger boards include:[29][30]
Some variants of knighted chess only adopt one knighted piece, not both. One example of this isChancellor chess, which only uses knighted rook (chancellor) and is played on a 9x9 board. Another example is Puerto Rican chess player Gabriel Vicente Maura'smodern chess (c. 1968) which only uses theprime minister (bishop+knight).[37]
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Chess variants played on larger boards have a long history. Examples include the Arabicshatranj al-tamma (10x10) andCourier chess (12x8). Numerous knighted chess variants adopt larger boards following Capablanca's lead. One of these adaptations, Trice's chess (initially patented as Gothic chess) was promoted by American chess player Ed Trice and saw some commercial development in the early 2000s. Specialized chess sets were created and several international tournaments were organized. In 2004, the Gothic Chess Computer World Championship was held. After extensive testing, Trice claimed to have found the ideal starting position which avoided several flaws in previous variants of Capablanca chess.[38]
Hungarian-American grandmasterSusan Polgar played some Trice chess matches, and in 2006 there was an attempt to arrange a match betweenFischer andAnatoly Karpov in this variant, but this never took place. Fischer was reportedly interested in the game according to Ed Trice.[39][40][38]
A few other variants have also seen some wider play. For example,Christian Freeling'sGrand chess was played in a 1996 tournament inArmenia. It was also a common feature of American magazineAbstract Games in the early 2000s.[38] Grand chess is also discussed in Schmittberger'sNew Rules for Classic Games (1992), and inPritchard's Encyclopedia of Chess Variants.
Maura's modern chess which was introduced in his 1980Evolución del Ajedrez attracted a significant following in the Spanish speaking world, especially inPuerto Rico (where a club dedicated to it was opened), as well as in Latin America and in Spain. Chess sets for this variant were manufactured and various events were organized. The first international match was held in 1972 between Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.[41]
An organization for the game was also founded, the Federación Mundial de Ajedrez Moderno (FEMDAM), which had delegates from 16 countries.[41] Tournaments were held throughout the 70s, but events ceased in 1983 and FEMDAM was eventually dissolved when Maura fell ill.[42][41]
Seirawan chess (or S-Chess) is a Capablanca chess variant byYasser Seirawan and Bruce Harper that uses a standard 8x8 chess board. The initial position is that of standardchess. Each side has the additional two knighted pieces in hand, which are called a hawk (chancellor ) and an elephant (archbishop) in Seirawan Chess.[43]
When notating games inalgebraic notation, the letterE is used for the elephant andH for the hawk. If the player places one of the two pieces on the board, it is written after aslash. For example,1. Nc3/E means that the player moved his knight fromb1 toc3 and placed the elephant onb1.[44]
The elephant and the hawk are introduced to the game in the following way: whenever the player moves apiece (king, queen, knight, bishop or rook) from its starting position (that hasn't already been moved), one of the pieces in hand may be placed immediately on the square just vacated. One cannot use the placing of an elephant or hawk to blockcheck. If the player moves all his pieces from the firstrank without placing one or both in hand pieces, he forfeits the right to do so. Aftercastling, the player may put one of the pieces in hand on either theking's or the rook's square, but he may not place both pieces in hand in the same turn. Pawns maypromote to a hawk or an elephant in this game (in addition to the normal chess pieces).[43]
Capablanca random chess applies the concept ofChess960 / Fischerandom to Capablanca chess.[45] The starting setup is arranged as perChess960 rules, but also includes the following additional restrictions:
In total, there are 12,118 starting positions in Capablanca random chess.
"Capahouse" similarly applies the drop rule fromcrazyhouse to Capablanca chess. The rules are as in Capablanca chess except the following new rules:[46]
Seirawan and Harper wrote the following regarding the changes in strategy in their Seirawan chess:
the placement of the pieces on squares vacated by the existing pieces changes the game and creates innumerable possibilities which render all existing opening theory open to reexamination and opens up many new possibilities as well. Players who understand the principles of opening play will do well, while players who rely primarily on memorizing variations will find themselves in trouble.[43]
Ed Thrice and his colleagues in the Gothic chess community pioneered various theories and openings for this Capablanca variant in the 2000s. According to Thrice,
Initially, we played many games by opening with 1. f4 which is the functional equivalent of 1. e4 in older 8x8 chess. Later, 1. d4 become more fashionable, but not for the corresponding reason to the liaison opening in regular chess. It is more flexible, tends not to "hem in" either Bishop, and allows White the opportunity to initiate the first real threat in the game. Lately, National Master John Vehre and Ed Trice pioneered the 1. g4 line, referred to as The Spike opening. That opening is the most aggressive, offers the greatest scope for original play, and is one of the most complicated ways to create middlegame tactical shootouts.[47]
H. G. Muller suggested the following estimated piece values for Capablanca chess pieces:[48]
| pawn | 1 |
| knight | 3 |
| bishop | 3.5 (+0.5 for thebishop pair) |
| rook | 5 |
| archbishop | 8.75 |
| chancellor | 9 |
| queen | 9.5 |
Edward Trice meanwhile gives the following values for the pieces in his Trice's chess:[49]
| pawn | 1.00 |
| knight | 2.50 |
| bishop | 3.00 |
| rook | 4.75 |
| archbishop | 6.75 |
| chancellor | 8.25 |
| queen | 8.75 |
These values would be different in variants with different board sizes and configurations however. On larger boards, bishops gain in value, because both of its forward moves become likely to attack the enemy camp. Thus in Capablanca chess, two bishops are clearly superior to two knights, and closer in value to two knights plus pawn.[50]
There is in addition a strong "leveling effect": the strong pieces (archbishop, chancellor, and queen) cannot display their superiority against a large number of weaker pieces, because the weaker pieces can restrict them. For example, a queen attacked by a knight must usually move to avoid capture, and cannot rely on being defended; but a knight attacked by a queen need not fear. Thus sacrificing a strong piece for rook and minor, or three minor pieces, can give significant compensation (greater than a pawn) because it increases the value of one's remaining strong pieces relative to the opponent's.[48]
Carrera invented two new pieces, to be added to the eight original chess-men. That which he calls campione is placed between the king's knight and castle: its move is both that of the castle and of the knight. The other, named centaur, between the queen's knight and castle, has the move of the bishop and knight united. Each of these pieces has its pawn, and, of course, the board must contain two more squares on each side, which will augment their number to eighty. This invention appears to have died with the inventor.
Carrera in 1617 inserted two new pieces, a Campione, having the moves of rook and knight, to be placed between the king's rook and the king's knight and a centaur, combining the moves of bishop and knight placed between the queen's rook and the queen's knight on a board 10×8 squares.
In his last book he describes a new variety of chess of his own invention on a 10×8 board, with four extra pieces on each side, viz., two Pawns, aCentauro (b1, b8) with the moves of Rook and Knight, and aCampione (i1, i8) with the moves of Bishop and Knight. The game never got beyond the book stage.H.J.R. Murray incorrectly described the moves of the Centauro (actually, bishop + knight) and Campione (rook + knight).
For Capablanca Chess the values are Q=950, C=900, A=875, R=500, B=350, B-pair bonus=50, N=300, P=100
Bibliography
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