Knighted chess

Grandmaster Susan Polgar playing Trice's chess (a version of Capablanca chess) with Ed Trice.

One Staunton style design for the chancellor (left) and archbishop (right) knighted chessmen.

Knighted chess is a family of over twenty Western chess 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), and Trice'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.

The new compound pieces are the archbishop or princess which combines moves of a bishop and a knight, and the chancellor or empress which combines moves of a rook and a knight. 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). A few variants also add another compound piece, the amazon (queen+knight).

The first knighted chess variant was introduced by Italian chess player Pietro Carrera in his 1617 book Il Gioco de gli Scacchi (The Game of Chess). Various similar games appears throughout the 18th and 19th centuries with the new knighted pieces. In the 20th century, World Chess Champion José 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 of chess 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. Later board game designers like Christian 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. The American grandmaster Yasser Seirawan designed his own variant to be played on a standard chessboard (Seraiwan chess). The Soviet grandmaster Victor Korchnoi is known to have enjoyed playing Janus Chess, and is quoted as having said "I like playing Janus Chess because one can show more creativity than in normal chess."

Early variants

Carrera's chess

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Carrera's chess. Earliest chess variant on 8×10 board with archbishop and chancellor.

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Maximum range of a chancellor (R+N) on an empty board

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Maximum range of an archbishop (B+N) on an empty board

In 1617, the Syracusan priest and chess player Pietro Carrera (1573-1647) published a book Il 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. He placed new pieces between a rook and a knight. Carrera called them the campione ("champion", called the chancellor 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.

The centaur was placed on the queenside and champion on the kingside, these being pieces which he appears to have invented for the purpose of the book, as he mentions previously odds where the weaker player’s king or queen has the knight’s move.

His likely primary motivation for the design was either the limitations of opening theory in this time or that he was just following the logic of Pedro Damiano and Ruy 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 a fairy piece 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.

Carrera used the names Centauro (centaur) instead of archbishop, and Campione (champion) instead of chancellor. Coincidentally, he could have placed the doubleton of Italian or Spanish Draughts, games which he even mentioned in passing in course of discussing the origin of chess, 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.

Other early variants

Another early knighted chess variant was played in 18th century India. This "Hyderabad decimal chess" was first described in a 1790s manuscript from Hyderabad. It was later described in Murray’s 1913 History 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.

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 and Sultanspiel. 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).

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Bird's chess. Second chess variant on 8×10 board with archbishop and chancellor.

In 1874, the English chess player Henry Bird (known as the inventor of the f4 Bird's Opening) proposed a further variant on Carrera's game in an issue of the City of London Chess Magazine. 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 names equerry instead of archbishop, and guard instead of chancellor. 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 by John Manners, 3rd Duke of Rutland (1696–1779), which used a 10x14 squares board with the following extra pieces: the concubine (combines rook 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 like André Danican Philidor and Abraham Janssen.

The chancellor piece also appeared in Benjamin R. Foster's chancellor chess variant played on a 9x9 board. First publicized in the St 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.

20th and 21st century variants

Capablanca chess

Capablanca demonstrating Capablanca chess on a 10x10 board as reported in a 1929 April issue of The Times

The Cuban chess master José Raúl Capablanca (1888–1942) also promoted a his own "Capablanca chess" (or Capablanca's chess) variant in a series of talks, interviews and articles. These suggestions appeared as early as an 1926 article in the Cuban Revista Bimestre Cubana. 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.

The main impulse behind Capablanca 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. This concern was also shared by his friend Emmanuel Lasker according to Lasker's own Mein Wettkampf mit Capablanca.

Capablanca proposed two opening setups for Capablanca chess. His final revision placed the archbishop between the queen's knight and queen's bishop; the chancellor between the king's knight and king's bishop.

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Capablanca chess starting setup. The archbishops are on c1/c8; the chancellors are on h1/h8.

In Capablanca chess, the king moves three squares when castling instead of moving two squares as in standard chess. A pawn can promote to archbishop or chancellor in addition to the regular promotion options in standard chess. 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 later play-testing however, he also promoted a variant on a 10x8 board. Edward Lasker wrote:

... 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. Hungarian grandmaster Géza Maróczy also played some games with Capablanca (who got the better of him). British champion William Winter thought that there were too many strong pieces, making the minor pieces less relevant. Capablanca's proposition was also criticized by other contemporary chess players in print, including Max Euwe and Siegbert Tarrasch. The debate was carried out in newspapers like the Manchester Guardian.

The new piece names archbishop (Spanish: arzobispo, originally named chancellor) and chancellor (Spanish: canciller, originally named marshall, followed by marshal) were introduced by Capablanca himself. These names are still used in most modern variants of Capablanca Chess.

Post-Capablanca variants

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 of chess.

List of standard board variants

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Tutti-Frutti Chess, starting position

Variants which rely on the standard 8x8 chessboard include the following:

• Neo-chess (1923) by Hugo Legler (on an 8x8 board), replaces the knight on b1/b8 with an archbishop, and the rook a1/a8 with the chancellor.
• Coronation chess created by Frank Maus in the 1920s added the knighted pieces by a specific move called coronation which consists of moving a basic piece (rook, bishop, or knight) into the square of another to merge them into a combined stronger piece that unified their powers. Maus coined the terms empress for rook+knight and princess for bishop+knight, names which were adopted by numerous later chess problemists.
• Tutti-frutti chess (1978) by Ralph Betza and Philip Cohen which replaces queen's rooks with empresses (rook+knight), queens with amazons, king's bishops with queens and the king's knights with princesses (bishop+knight).
• Seirawan chess (or S-Chess) by Yasser Seirawan and Bruce Harper begins with the classic chess setup, and the extra pieces are retained in hand and introduced as the game progresses and back rank squares are vacated.
• Musketeer chess, which expands on Seirawan chess by allowing players to select two extra pieces from an expanded pool of fairy chess pieces.

List of larger board variants

Variants which use larger boards include:

• Universal chess (1928) by Dr. Bruno Violet (on 10×10 board). He proposed two starting army arrangements.
• Supercapablanca chess (Savio Cagliostro, 1973), played on a 12x8 board, the extra pieces are two archbishops, a chancellor and a General (queen+knight)
• Janus Chess (1978) by Werner Schöndorf a commercial game using a 10x8 board with extra pieces called januses (bishop+knight); extra pieces are Januses (B+N). Originally marketed as "Super-Chess".
• Grand chess (1984) by Christian Freeling which uses a 10×10 board and moves the starting line for most of the armies one rank forward (except the rooks). There is no castling.
• Modern chess by Gabriel Vicente Maura (9x9 board)
• Trice's chess (2000, previously called Gothic chess) by Edward A. Trice, which uses 10x8 board
• Aberg's variation (2003) by Hans Aberg (10x8)
• Grotesque chess (2004) by Fergus Duniho
• Capablanca Chess, Paulowich Variant (2004) by David Paulovich, which was included in the computer program ChessV. This setup was also reinvented independently by John K. Lewis as Victorian chess (2007).
• Ladorean chess (2005) by Bernhard U. Hermes
• Embassy chess (2005) by Kevin Hill which uses a starting position identical to Grand Chess on a 10×8 board
• Univers chess (2006) by Fergus Duniho adopts the starting lineup of Universal chess on a 10×8 board
• Schoolbook chess (2006) by Sam Trenholme
• Capablanca random chess (2004) by Reinhard Scharnagl
• Modern Capablanca random chess (2008) by José Carrillo
• Gliński–Capablanca Chess, which combines Gliński's hexagonal chess with Capablanca chess

Some variants of knighted chess only adopt one knighted piece, not both. One example of this is Chancellor chess, which only uses knighted rook (chancellor) and is played on a 9x9 board. Another example is Puerto Rican chess player Gabriel Vicente Maura's modern chess (c. 1968) which only uses the prime minister (bishop+knight).

Large board variants

Grotesque chess opening setup

Univers chess opening setup

Ladorean chess setup

Embassy chess setup

Schoolbook Chess

Gothic Chess

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Grand Chess starting setup. Marshals are on f2/f9; cardinals are on g2/g9.

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.

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.

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.

Hungarian-American grandmaster Susan Polgar played some Trice chess matches, and in 2006 there was an attempt to arrange a match between Fischer and Anatoly Karpov in this variant, but this never took place. Fischer was reportedly interested in the game according to Ed Trice.

A few other variants have also seen some wider play. For example, Christian Freeling's Grand chess was played in a 1996 tournament in Armenia. It was also a common feature of American magazine Abstract Games in the early 2000s. Grand chess is also discussed in Schmittberger's New Rules for Classic Games (1992), and in Pritchard's Encyclopedia of Chess Variants.

Maura's Modern chess

Maura's modern chess which was introduced in his 1980 Evolución del Ajedrez attracted a significant following in the Spanish speaking world, especially in Puerto 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 between Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

An organization for the game was also founded, the Federación Mundial de Ajedrez Moderno (FEMDAM), which had delegates from 16 countries. Tournaments were held throughout the 70s, but events ceased in 1983 and FEMDAM was eventually dissolved when Maura fell ill.

Seirawan chess

Staunton style designs for the hawk and elephant

Seirawan chess (or S-Chess) is a Capablanca chess variant by Yasser Seirawan and Bruce Harper that uses a standard 8x8 chess board. The initial position is that of standard chess. Each side has the additional two knighted pieces in hand, which are called a hawk (chancellor ) and an elephant (archbishop ) in Seirawan Chess.

When notating games in algebraic notation, the letter E is used for the elephant and H for the hawk. If the player places one of the two pieces on the board, it is written after a slash. For example, 1. Nc3/E means that the player moved his knight from b1 to c3 and placed the elephant on b1.

Musketeer chess is an expanded S-chess with several more fairy pieces available for pre-game selection that can be introduced into the game from a storage row.

The elephant and the hawk are introduced to the game in the following way: whenever the player moves a piece (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 block check. If the player moves all his pieces from the first rank without placing one or both in hand pieces, he forfeits the right to do so. After castling, the player may put one of the pieces in hand on either the king's or the rook's square, but he may not place both pieces in hand in the same turn. Pawns may promote to a hawk or an elephant in this game (in addition to the normal chess pieces).

Capablanca variants with different rules

Capablanca random chess applies the concept of Chess960 / Fischerandom to Capablanca chess. The starting setup is arranged as per Chess960 rules, but also includes the following additional restrictions:

• All pawns in the starting positions must be protected by at least one piece.
• Bishops cannot start on neighboring squares.
• The queen and the archbishop must start on opposite-colored squares.
• The starting position cannot be that of Gothic chess.

In total, there are 12,118 starting positions in Capablanca random chess.

"Capahouse" similarly applies the drop rule from crazyhouse to Capablanca chess. The rules are as in Capablanca chess except the following new rules:

• Drops resulting in immediate checkmate are permitted. This includes pawn drops.
• Pawns may not be dropped on the 1st or 8th ranks.
• Pawns that have been promoted and later captured must dropped as normal pawns.
• Dropped white and black pawns on the 2nd and 7th ranks, respectively, may make a two-square move as their first move after the drop.
• Dropped rooks cannot castle.

Strategy

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.

H. G. Muller suggested the following estimated piece values for Capablanca chess pieces:

pawn	1
knight	3
bishop	3.5 (+0.5 for the bishop 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:

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.

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.

Equipment

One design for the archbishop and chancellor pieces

Selenus chess pieces

Standard chess sets may be used for the classic pieces, but players must also acquire four new distinct looking chessmen to represent the black and white chancellor and archbishops. Specialized chessmen created for these type of variants can be found in hobbyist, board game shops and online craft shops. Some knighted chess variants were produced as full chess sets, like Gothic Chess, and Omega Chess, but most of these are hard to find and out of print.

As such, most hobbyists make their own custom sets. One can also alter, customize or paint regular chess pieces to make them appear distinctive. Another option would be to use specific chessmen from chess sets made in a very different style than the standard Staunton chess set, like the English Barleycorn, Lund pattern or Selenus styles. Other options include using RPG figurines and 3D printed pieces.

The knighted variants which make use of standard 8x8 chessboards like Seirawan chess and Neo-chess pose no problem for players seeking to try these variants on their common chess boards. Other variants require customized boards which are not easily available (such as 10x8). For 10x10 board variants, an international draughts board can be used as a stand in, while for 9x9 variants, a Shogi board can be used. One can also buy inexpensive chess boards made of card stock, vinyl or mousepad material and cut them into pieces which can then be reassembled to accommodate different board sizes.

Programs that play knighted chess variants

• Chess.com
• ChessV
• Fairy-Max
• EvoChess
• Fairy Stockfish
• Chess Remix
• Green Chess
• Musketeer chess
• Pychess

References

Bibliography

• Cazaux, Jean-Louis; Knowlton, Rick (2017). A World of Chess: Its Development and Variations Through Centuries and Civilizations. McFarland. ISBN 978-0786494279.
• Gollon, John (1968). "Capablanca's Chess". Chess Variations • Ancient, Regional, and Modern. Charles E. Tuttle Company Inc. pp. 219–22. ISBN 9780804811224. LCCN 06811975.
• Lasker, Edward (1959). The Adventure of Chess. ISBN 0-486-20510-X. {{cite book}}: ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)
• Pritchard, D. B. (2007). Beasley, John (ed.). The Classified Encyclopedia of Chess Variants. John Beasley. ISBN 978-0-9555168-0-1.
• Schmittberger, R. Wayne (1992). New Rules for Classic Games. John Wiley & Sons Inc. ISBN 978-0471536215.

Further reading

• Pritchard, D. B. (1994). "Capablanca Chess". The Encyclopedia of Chess Variants. Games & Puzzles Publications. pp. 38–40. ISBN 0-9524142-0-1. (extensive history)

External links

• "Capablanca's chess" Archived 2010-06-13 at the Wayback Machine by Hans Bodlaender, The Chess Variant Pages
• Capablanca Chess at BoardGameGeek
• Capablanca Chess a simple program by Ed Friedlander (Java)
• PyChess Website online play (real time with digital clocks)