Alice Chess
Encyclopedia
Alice Chess is a chess variant
invented in 1953 by V. R. Parton
which employs two chessboard
s rather than one, and a slight (but significant) alteration to the standard rules of chess
. The game is named after the main character "Alice
" in Lewis Carroll
's book Through the Looking-Glass
, where travel through the looking-glass is portrayed by the after-move transfer of chess pieces between boards A and B.
The simple transfer rule is well known for causing disorientation and confusion in players new to the game, and often leads to surprises and amusing mistakes as pieces "disappear" and "reappear" between boards. This "nothing is as it seems" experience probably accounts for Alice Chess remaining Parton's most popular and successful invention among the numerous other chess variants he created in his lifetime.
At the beginning of the game, pieces start in their normal positions on board A, while board B starts empty. After each move is made on a given board, the moved piece is transferred (goes "through the looking-glass") to the corresponding square on the opposite board. (So, if a piece is moved on board A, it is transferred to board B at the completion of its move; if the piece started on board B, it ends up on board A.)
For example, after the opening moves 1. Nf3 e6, the white knight and black pawn transfer after moving on board A to their corresponding squares on board B. If the game continued 2. Ne5 Bc5, the knight returns to board A and the bishop finishes on board B. (See diagram.)
A move in Alice Chess has two basic stipulations: the move must be legal on the board on which it is played, and the square transferred to on the opposite board must be vacant. (As a result, capture is possible only on the board a piece sits on – pieces on board A can capture only pieces on board A; pieces on board B can capture only pieces on board B. After a capture, the capturing piece transfers to the opposite board the same as a non-capturing move.)
To demonstrate, if the above game continued 3. Nxf7, the knight transfers to board B. Then with Black to move, both 3... Kxf7 and 3... Bxf2+ are not possible. Black cannot play 3... Qd4 either, since the queen may not hop over the black pawn on d7. But the move 3... Bg1 is possible (see diagram), despite the fact a white pawn sits on f2 on board A. (The bishop move on board B is legal, and the square transferred to, g1 on board A, is vacant.)
A final stipulation is that a king may not put itself into check upon transfer. (In other words, a king may not transfer to a vacant square on the opposite board, if this would result in check to the king.) Castling is largely regarded as permitted in Alice Chess. The en passant
rule is normally not used, but can be.
At first glance, it might seem that Black can simply interpose a piece between White's bishop and his king to block the check (for example, 3... Bd7 or 3... Nc6 or 3... c6). But any piece so interposed immediately "disappears" when it transfers to board B. And Black cannot escape check by fleeing to the opposite board via 3... Kd7, because the move is not a legal move on board A. Therefore it is checkmate.
Another form of Fool's Mate: 1. e4 d6 2. Bc4 Qxd2? 3. Bb5#
And another: 1. e4 e5 2. Qh5 Nf6? 3. Qxe5#
1. d4 e6 2. Qd6 Be7? 3. Qe5+ Kf8 4. Bh6# (Seitz–Nadvorney, 1973).
Paul Yearout vs. George Jelliss, 1996 AISE Grand Prix:
1. d3 Nf6 2. Nc3 c5 3. Qd2 Nc6 (To give a direct check to the king the checking piece must come from the other board, so it is necessary first to transfer forces to the other board.) 4. d4/A Rb8 (This way of developing rooks is common in Alice Chess.) 5. e3 g5 (This prevents the Bc1 coming to g5 or f4.) 6. f4 Rbg8/A (Guarding Pg5 on the other board.) 7. Nd5/A h6 8. Nf3 gxf4/A (Inconsistent play on my part. Ne4/A now looks better to me.) 9. Bxf4 Rg4 10. Be5/A Rh5 11. 0-0-0 [diagram] (Perhaps judging that the activated black force now being on the second board the king might be safer there. The black queen is now effectively 'pinned': 11...Q-c7/b6?? 12.Qd8#.) 11... Ne4/A 12. Bc7 Ra4/A 13. Ba6 Bg7 (The idea is 14...Rc4+ 15.c3/Nc3 Bxc3+/A.) 14. Bb5/A Rc4+ 15. Kb1/A Rf5/A 16. Ba5/A (Desperate measures now needed to save the 'pinned' queen.) 16... Rxd5 17. Qxd5/A Qxa5 (Threatening 18...Qa1#.) 18. a3 Qd2/A 19. Qxd7+ Kf8 (I put these two moves in as an 'if...then' clause, but it seems Paul may not have noticed the discovered check, so perhaps I should have kept quiet!) 20. Qxg7/A Qc3 (Stops Qh8#.) 21. Rd8/A Black resigns (1–0) (If 21...Bd7/Be6/Nf6 [then] 22.Qg8/Re8/Qh8#.)
Chess variant
A chess variant is a game related to, derived from or inspired by chess. The difference from chess might include one or more of the following:...
invented in 1953 by V. R. Parton
V. R. Parton
Vernon Rylands Parton was an English chess enthusiast and prolific chess variant inventor, his most renowned variant being Alice Chess. Many of Parton's variants were inspired by the fictional characters and stories in the works of Lewis Carroll...
which employs two chessboard
Chessboard
A chessboard is the type of checkerboard used in the board game chess, and consists of 64 squares arranged in two alternating colors...
s rather than one, and a slight (but significant) alteration to the standard rules of chess
Rules of chess
The rules of chess are rules governing the play of the game of chess. While the exact origins of chess are unclear, modern rules first took form during the Middle Ages. The rules continued to be slightly modified until the early 19th century, when they reached essentially their current form. The...
. The game is named after the main character "Alice
Alice (Alice's Adventures in Wonderland)
Alice is a fictional character in the literary classic, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and its sequel, Through the Looking-Glass, And What Alice Found There. She is a young girl from Victorian-era Britain.-Development:...
" in Lewis Carroll
Lewis Carroll
Charles Lutwidge Dodgson , better known by the pseudonym Lewis Carroll , was an English author, mathematician, logician, Anglican deacon and photographer. His most famous writings are Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and its sequel Through the Looking-Glass, as well as the poems "The Hunting of the...
's book Through the Looking-Glass
Through the Looking-Glass
Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There is a work of literature by Lewis Carroll . It is the sequel to Alice's Adventures in Wonderland...
, where travel through the looking-glass is portrayed by the after-move transfer of chess pieces between boards A and B.
The simple transfer rule is well known for causing disorientation and confusion in players new to the game, and often leads to surprises and amusing mistakes as pieces "disappear" and "reappear" between boards. This "nothing is as it seems" experience probably accounts for Alice Chess remaining Parton's most popular and successful invention among the numerous other chess variants he created in his lifetime.
Move rules
In Alice Chess, pieces move the same as they do in standard chess, but a piece transfers at the completion of its move to the opposite board. This simple change causes a dramatic impact on gameplay.At the beginning of the game, pieces start in their normal positions on board A, while board B starts empty. After each move is made on a given board, the moved piece is transferred (goes "through the looking-glass") to the corresponding square on the opposite board. (So, if a piece is moved on board A, it is transferred to board B at the completion of its move; if the piece started on board B, it ends up on board A.)
For example, after the opening moves 1. Nf3 e6, the white knight and black pawn transfer after moving on board A to their corresponding squares on board B. If the game continued 2. Ne5 Bc5, the knight returns to board A and the bishop finishes on board B. (See diagram.)
A move in Alice Chess has two basic stipulations: the move must be legal on the board on which it is played, and the square transferred to on the opposite board must be vacant. (As a result, capture is possible only on the board a piece sits on – pieces on board A can capture only pieces on board A; pieces on board B can capture only pieces on board B. After a capture, the capturing piece transfers to the opposite board the same as a non-capturing move.)
To demonstrate, if the above game continued 3. Nxf7, the knight transfers to board B. Then with Black to move, both 3... Kxf7 and 3... Bxf2+ are not possible. Black cannot play 3... Qd4 either, since the queen may not hop over the black pawn on d7. But the move 3... Bg1 is possible (see diagram), despite the fact a white pawn sits on f2 on board A. (The bishop move on board B is legal, and the square transferred to, g1 on board A, is vacant.)
A final stipulation is that a king may not put itself into check upon transfer. (In other words, a king may not transfer to a vacant square on the opposite board, if this would result in check to the king.) Castling is largely regarded as permitted in Alice Chess. The en passant
En passant
En passant is a move in the board game of chess . It is a special pawn capture which can occur immediately after a player moves a pawn two squares forward from its starting position, and an enemy pawn could have captured it had it moved only one square forward...
rule is normally not used, but can be.
Alice Fool's Mate
Several exist, one is: 1. e4 d5 2. Be2 dxe4? 3. Bb5# (see diagram).At first glance, it might seem that Black can simply interpose a piece between White's bishop and his king to block the check (for example, 3... Bd7 or 3... Nc6 or 3... c6). But any piece so interposed immediately "disappears" when it transfers to board B. And Black cannot escape check by fleeing to the opposite board via 3... Kd7, because the move is not a legal move on board A. Therefore it is checkmate.
Another form of Fool's Mate: 1. e4 d6 2. Bc4 Qxd2? 3. Bb5#
And another: 1. e4 e5 2. Qh5 Nf6? 3. Qxe5#
Alice Scholar's Mate
1. e4 h5 2. Be2 Rh4 3. Bxh5 Rxe4+ 4. Kf1 d5 5. Qe2? (threatening 6.Qb5#) 5... Bh3# (see diagram).1. d4 e6 2. Qd6 Be7? 3. Qe5+ Kf8 4. Bh6# (Seitz–Nadvorney, 1973).
Yearout vs. Jelliss, 1996
(Annotations by George Jelliss; moves returning to board A are notated "/A".)Paul Yearout vs. George Jelliss, 1996 AISE Grand Prix:
1. d3 Nf6 2. Nc3 c5 3. Qd2 Nc6 (To give a direct check to the king the checking piece must come from the other board, so it is necessary first to transfer forces to the other board.) 4. d4/A Rb8 (This way of developing rooks is common in Alice Chess.) 5. e3 g5 (This prevents the Bc1 coming to g5 or f4.) 6. f4 Rbg8/A (Guarding Pg5 on the other board.) 7. Nd5/A h6 8. Nf3 gxf4/A (Inconsistent play on my part. Ne4/A now looks better to me.) 9. Bxf4 Rg4 10. Be5/A Rh5 11. 0-0-0 [diagram] (Perhaps judging that the activated black force now being on the second board the king might be safer there. The black queen is now effectively 'pinned': 11...Q-c7/b6?? 12.Qd8#.) 11... Ne4/A 12. Bc7 Ra4/A 13. Ba6 Bg7 (The idea is 14...Rc4+ 15.c3/Nc3 Bxc3+/A.) 14. Bb5/A Rc4+ 15. Kb1/A Rf5/A 16. Ba5/A (Desperate measures now needed to save the 'pinned' queen.) 16... Rxd5 17. Qxd5/A Qxa5 (Threatening 18...Qa1#.) 18. a3 Qd2/A 19. Qxd7+ Kf8 (I put these two moves in as an 'if...then' clause, but it seems Paul may not have noticed the discovered check, so perhaps I should have kept quiet!) 20. Qxg7/A Qc3 (Stops Qh8#.) 21. Rd8/A Black resigns (1–0) (If 21...Bd7/Be6/Nf6 [then] 22.Qg8/Re8/Qh8#.)
Variations
Minor (and not-so-minor) rule modification has sprouted a number of different variations on Alice Chess.- Alice Chess 2 (SchemingMind.com): The black army starts out on the opposite board (board B).
- Ms. Alice Chess (John Ishkan, 1973): Null or zero moves are permitted. (A move consisting of piece transfer only – from the current square a piece sits on, to the corresponding square, if vacant, on the opposite board.)
- O'Donohue Chess (Michael O'Donohue, 2003): Piece transfer to the opposite board isn't required, if the square normally transferred to is occupied.
- Duo Chess (Jed Stone, 1981): Black starts out on board B; transfers are optional; non-pawn pieces may make zero moves (and may capture in so doing); a king is checked when an opposing piece sits on the king's zero square; mate must cover the king's ability to flee via a zero move.
- Looking-Glass Chess (V. R. Parton, 1970): Uses two complete sets instead of one, and no transfers. (Thus two separate games on two boards.) A move on a given board forces a mirror-image move on the opposite board. (So, 1. Nf3 on board A forces White to play 1. Nc3 on board B.)
- Parton also introduced a smaller, 8x4 version of Alice Chess. (See diagram.)
- Parton observed that Alice Chess could be played using three boards instead of two. (Players then having a choice between two boards when transferring a piece.)
- Alice Chess rules can really be adopted by practically any other chess variant too, by simply doubling the number of gameboards in the variant and applying the Alice piece transfer policy. (For example, Raumschach using two 5×5×5 boards.)
External links
- "Alice Chess" by Edward Jackman and Fergus Duniho, The Chess Variant Pages
- "Alice Chess" by George Jelliss, BCVS Variant Chess website
- "Alice Chess" by Michael J. Farris, SchemingMind.com
- SchemingMind.com play online correspondence chess
- Play.Chessvariants.org the Alice Chess PBM Game Courier
- Pathguy.com a simple Alice Chess program by Ed Friedlander