Minichess
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Minichess is a family of chess variants played with regular chess pieces and standard rules, but on a smaller board.[1]
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[edit] 3x3 chess
Chess on a 3x3 board does not have any clearly defined starting position. However, it is a solved game. This means that for any given position, it is known if it is winnable for one side or a draw. The best move for each side is known as well. The game was solved independently by Aloril in 2001 and by Kirill Kryukov in 2004. The solution by Kryukov is more complete, since it allows pawns to be placed everywhere, not only on second row as by Aloril. The longest checkmate on 3x3 board takes 16 moves. The number of legal positions is 304,545,552.[2]
[edit] 4x4 and 4x5 chess
Silverman 4x4
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Silverman 4x5
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Microchess
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In 1981 Silverman suggested 4x4 chess variant shown on the diagram.[3] The first player wins easily in this game, so Silverman proposed a variant: black can select a pawn and white must make a first move with this pawn. However, in this case black easily wins (select pawn b2, 1.bxa3 (or 1.bxc3) b2+ 2. Qxb2 Qxb2 checkmate). To make the variant more playable, Silverman finally proposed to insert a row between pawns and use the board 4x5. In this variant pawns can do double-move if target square is free.
Another chess variant on 4x5 board, Microchess was invented by Glimne in 1997.[4] The castling is allowed in this variant.
[edit] 5x5 chess
Gardner.
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Baby.
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Jacobs-Meirovitz.
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Mallett.
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In 1969 Martin Gardner suggested a chess variant on 5x5 board in which all chess moves, including pawn double-move, en-passant capture as well as castling can be made.[5] Later AISE (Associazione Italiana Scacchi Eterodossi) abandoned pawn double-move and castling. The game was largely played in Italy (including by correspondence) and opening theory was developed. The statistics of the finished games is the following:[6]
- White won in 40% of games.
- Black won in 28%.
- Draw was in 32%.
Gardner minichess was also played by AISE with suicide chess and progressive chess rules. In 1980 HP shipped HP-41C programmable calculator, which could play this game.[7] The calculator was able to play on quite a decent level.
In 1989 Martin Gardner proposed another setup, which he called Baby chess. In difference from Gardner minichess, kings are placed into opposite corners here. Paul Jacobs and Marco Meirovitz suggested another starting position for 5x5 chess shown at the right. Jeff Mallett (main developer of Zillions of Games), suggested setup in which white has two knights against two black bishops.[8]
[edit] 6x6 chess
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Besides Los Alamos chess, there are other chess variants played on a 6x6 board. The game Diana chess (or Ladies chess) was suggested by Hopwood in 1870. The initial position is shown at the right. There are no queens on the board and pawns can't promote to queens either. Pawns cannot move forward two squares on their initial move. Castling is done by switching the positions of the king and rook. The same condition as in chess apply for castling (e.g. the king should not be under check, neither rook nor king should have moved before etc.)
Serge L'Hermitte suggested in 1969 a game with nearly the same setup as Diana chess, except that the positions of the black king and knight are exchanged from their positions in Diana chess. Additionally, knights cannot move within the first three moves, and the king can move to the knight position without losing the right to castle.
A. Wardley proposed in 1977 a Simpler chess, a family of 6x6 chess variants, in which a pair of pieces is removed from the both sides: rooks, knights, bishop or even king and queen. Removing bishops results in Los Alamos chess; the result of removing rooks or knights is shown on the diagrams above.
Jeff Mallett proposed the setup knights versus bishops also on 6x6 board. On a normal 8x8 board, bishops are considered slightly more valuable than knights (especially two bishops). However, on 6x6 boards, because of the smaller size of the board, two knights are presumably equal to two bishops.
[edit] See also
- Microshogi - played on 4x5 board
- Minishogi - played on 5x5 board
[edit] Notes
- ^ Pritchard, D. (1994). The Encyclopedia of Chess Variants. Games & Puzzles Publications. ISBN 0-9524-1420-1.
- ^ 3x3 Chess by Kirill Kryukov.
- ^ Pritchard (2007), p. 113
- ^ Pritchard (2007), p. 113
- ^ Martin Gardner (1991). The Unexpected Hanging and Other Mathematical Diversions. University Of Chicago Press; Reprint edition. ISBN 0-2262-8256-2.
- ^ Pritchard (2007), p. 113
- ^ HP-minichess by Hans Bodlaender, based on an email from Ross Crawford.
- ^ This game can be found in set of games shipped together with Zillions of Games. The history section says: A little experiment by Jeff Mallett.
[edit] References
- Pritchard, D. (2007). The Classified Encyclopedia of Chess Variants. John Beasley. ISBN 978-0955516801.
[edit] External links
- Knight court by Jason D. Wittman
- Mini-chess variants
- 6 Ranks, remaining variants by Charles Gilman.
