Dark chess
Encyclopedia
Dark chess is a chess variant
with incomplete information, similar to Kriegspiel
. It was invented by Jens Bæk Nielsen and Torben Osted in 1989. A player does not see the entire board, only their own pieces (including pawns), and squares where these pieces could move.
En passant
capture is allowed, even if you do not see that it is possible. Unlike standard chess, castling
is allowed even out of check, into check and through the positions attacked by opponent pieces.
This chess variant is best played on one of the online chess servers. For playing over-the-board, three chess sets and a referee are needed, just as in Kriegspiel
.
There are some minor differences in the rules on different servers:
In this chess variant a king should be carefully protected from very dangerous checks by invisible pieces. For a queen the most dangerous pieces are knights, which can attack it without becoming visible.
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:...
with incomplete information, similar to Kriegspiel
Kriegspiel (chess)
Kriegspiel is a chess variant invented by Henry Michael Temple in 1899 and based upon the original Kriegsspiel developed by Georg von Rassewitz in 1812. In this game each player can see their own pieces, but not those of their opponent...
. It was invented by Jens Bæk Nielsen and Torben Osted in 1989. A player does not see the entire board, only their own pieces (including pawns), and squares where these pieces could move.
Rules
The goal of this chess variant is not to checkmate the king, but to capture it. A player isn't told if their king is in check. Failing to move out of check, or moving into check, are both legal, and can obviously result in a capture and loss of the game.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...
capture is allowed, even if you do not see that it is possible. Unlike standard chess, castling
Castling
Castling is a special move in the game of chess involving the king and either of the original rooks of the same color. It is the only move in chess in which a player moves two pieces at the same time. Castling consists of moving the king two squares towards a rook on the player's first rank, then...
is allowed even out of check, into check and through the positions attacked by opponent pieces.
This chess variant is best played on one of the online chess servers. For playing over-the-board, three chess sets and a referee are needed, just as in Kriegspiel
Kriegspiel (chess)
Kriegspiel is a chess variant invented by Henry Michael Temple in 1899 and based upon the original Kriegsspiel developed by Georg von Rassewitz in 1812. In this game each player can see their own pieces, but not those of their opponent...
.
There are some minor differences in the rules on different servers:
- BrainKing: pawn promotions remain unknown for the opponent.
- ItsYourTurn: the opponent knows that a pawn was promoted, but does not know where.
- SchemingMind: you do not see what is in front of your pawns, but know if the position is occupied or not.
- AjaxPlay.Com: En passantEn passantEn 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...
capture is not allowed; pawn promotions remain unknown for the opponent.
Variations
SchemingMind also provides some more variations of dark chess:- Dark chess (checkmate) - you are notified that your king is in check and you can't move your king into check. The goal in this variation is the same as in standard chess - to checkmate the king.
- Dark crazyhouse - combination of crazyhouseCrazyhouseCrazyhouse is a chess variant similar to bughouse chess, but with only two players. It effectively incorporates a rule in shogi , in which a player can introduce a captured piece back to the board as his own....
and dark chess. - Dark suicide - combination of suicideAntichessAntichess, also called losing chess, loser's chess, zero chess, giveaway chess, suicide chess, take-me chess or reverse chess is a chess variant in which the objective of the participants is to get all of their pieces captured. The most widely played variation, as described in the book Popular...
and dark chess. - Sun Tzu chess - combination of Double Fischer Random Chess (like Chess960Chess960Chess960 is a chess variant invented and advocated by former World Chess Champion Bobby Fischer, originally announced on June 19, 1996 in Buenos Aires, Argentina. It employs the same board and pieces as standard chess, but the starting position of the pieces is randomized along the players' home...
, but with different positions for white and black), crazyhouseCrazyhouseCrazyhouse is a chess variant similar to bughouse chess, but with only two players. It effectively incorporates a rule in shogi , in which a player can introduce a captured piece back to the board as his own....
and dark chess. You can drop pieces you have in any possible square on the board (like crazyhouse). This chess variant was invented in 2005 by John Kipling Lewis. - Lao Tzu chess - like Sun Tzu, but you can only drop pieces on square you can see. Also invented in 2005 by John Kipling Lewis.
- Generally, because basic Dark chess rules are universal with respect to its “parent” classical variant, any other 2-player chess variant like Omega ChessOmega ChessOmega Chess is a commercial chess variant designed by Daniel MacDonald in Toronto. The game is played on a 10x10 board with an extra square in each of the extreme corners where the wizards are placed at the start of the game...
, Seirawan chessSeirawan chessSeirawan chess is a chess variant invented by grandmaster Yasser Seirawan in 2007. It is played on the standard 8x8 board and uses two new pieces, the hawk and the elephant . Yasser Seirawan has given simultaneous exhibitions for the game...
or others may be played “in dark”, for example - Dark Omega ChessOmega ChessOmega Chess is a commercial chess variant designed by Daniel MacDonald in Toronto. The game is played on a 10x10 board with an extra square in each of the extreme corners where the wizards are placed at the start of the game...
.
Gameplay
Dark chess has a strong strategic flavor. Planning and strategy, as well as some psychological reasoning, are very important; tactics and move searching are not.In this chess variant a king should be carefully protected from very dangerous checks by invisible pieces. For a queen the most dangerous pieces are knights, which can attack it without becoming visible.
External links
- Dark Chess Strategy guide
- Darkness chess by Jens Bæk Nielsen
- Online turn-based dark chess
- Dark Chess implementation for Zillions of gamesZillions of GamesZillions of Games is a commercial General Game Playing system developed by Jeff Mallett and Mark Lefler in 1998. The game rules are specified with S expressions, Zillions rule language. It was designed to handle mostly abstract strategy board games or puzzles. After parsing the rules of the game,...
. - Freeware Windows Dark Chess game called SearchAndDestroyChess.
- KIKAItachi chess supports playing Dark chess variant among others.
- www.darkchess.com Dark Chess Helper application