A V Murali - Chess Variants & Games

ISBN 978-93-81115-74-9
A.V. Murali, 2011

Published in India, 2011
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To my beloved Mother,
for a lifetime of nurturing,
care, influence and sacrifice.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

A.V. MURALI was born and brought up in Madras, a city in southern India, well known for its ancient temples and ancient cultural traditions. He earned his Bachelor of Technology degree from IIT Madras. He works in software development and related areas.

From an early age Murali demonstrated a keen interest in mathematics and activities that required logical thinking. He developed an innate passion for new ways of solving problems and seeing things from entirely different perspectives. He was inspired to write this book when he invented several variants of the game of chess and realized the benefits of chess when played in these forms.

Apart from chess, his interests include classical music, psychology and spirituality. Murali currently resides in Mumbai with his family. He can be reached at: avmurali123@yahoo.com

CONTENTS

P REFACE

C HESS has been in existence for last several centuries since the time it took its earliest form. It is widely believed that chess originated in India and one of the earliest forms of chess is Chaturanga. Since then it has spread to different parts of the world where it has taken several forms before evolving into its present form as played in FIDE tournaments. Chess players and game inventors have all the time been exploring new ways of playing the game, by changing one or more of its characteristics. Some involve changes to board geometry or rules of the game while others involve change to objective of the game. This resulted in many interesting variants. This book is one such attempt.

While the book endeavors to bring out new varieties, an attempt has been made to look at chess from entirely different perspectives. One of them is to employ chess principles in education. Chess is all about searching through several available options and choosing the ones that can take us towards the desired goal. So, why not use chess as a motivational tool in imparting knowledge?

We come across puzzles in dailies and magazines. This book presents chess versions of some of these puzzles. Solving these puzzles requires methods different from the usual ones.

The book proposes outdoor versions of chess. Chess is an indoor game where 2 players sit across a table, analyze the positions and make moves. While it requires a lot of mental activity there is hardly any physical movement. The outdoor versions of chess proposed in this book require two teams of players playing the game on a playground just as we play games like volleyball and basketball. Outdoor chess demands mental and physical agility, logical depth, team spirit and synergistic thinking among players. The book also presents indoor versions of chess for team play wherein performance of every team member matters. The games played as team sport can be truly entertaining to watch.

I would like to add a few words about how the idea of writing this book occurred to me. It all started when I happened to walk along a pavement tiled with stones in the shape of a hexagon. I wondered whether chess can be played on hexagonal board. When I returned home I created rules for the game. After I completed all the specifications for a game on a hexagonal board, I considered various other geometries and explored into other aspects such as rules for movement and capture, objective of the game and so on. That was the time when I was unaware of existence of chess variants. Later on when I searched the internet, I came to know that in some cases, it was a case of reinvention while in others it was different from previous versions. I have tried to identify cases of reinvention and removed them from the book. I have retained the games that look similar to an existing variant but differ in some important aspects of the game. There are several games that are entirely new. As I decided to write a book on the subject I got the idea of applying chess directly in education and playing chess as an outdoor sport. I worked in these areas and created some new games.

I hope the reader would find the book interesting, offering some new insights. In short, I hope the book meets its objectives of bringing variety to chess and giving it a new form as an outdoor sport while making chess a useful tool in education.

Prerequisites
The book assumes a basic knowledge of Chess, its nomenclature and knowledge of algebraic notation used for games. In the case of games that deal with specific topics of a subject, such as mathematics or physics, the knowledge of the subject at checkpoint or a higher level is assumed. In the case of games that are inspired by popular sports, a basic idea about these forms of sports is assumed although the game rules are different from their original versions. Where some popular puzzles have been adapted, familiarity with these puzzles is assumed. However, the methods of solving the puzzles are different from their original versions. Games that use certain geometric shapes require basic appreciation of geometry and the ones using three dimensional boards, require ability to visualize in 3 dimensions.

Nomenclature
The book uses several terms. The reader may be familiar with some of these terms but some are new. This section provides a list of terms used frequently in the book along with a brief description. Special terms used in only a few games are not covered here. The reader is requested to go through this section before reading the rest of the book.

Orthodox chess: This is the term used to refer to one of the most popular versions of chess that is played on 8X8 board following FIDE rules. FIDE stands for Federation Internationale des checs. It is an international organization that acts as governing body for international chess competitions.
Board: a term used to refer to any of the array of cells in space. It can be 2 dimensional with shapes like square, circle and hexagon. It can be 3 dimensional with shapes like sphere, cube or cuboid etc. It can be one dimensional or can even be 4 dimensional.
Cell: this is the region within a board where a unit can be placed.
Unit: this refers to an object placed on the board and moved from one cell to another. It includes Pawns and pieces.
Pawn: this is a unit with restricted moves. It usually moves away from the initial setup.