Exchange Chess

[Alex Holowczak]

There are a lot of strong players on here, so I wondered what you all think of "Exchange" Chess; it may have another name.

Basically, you play as a team of 2, one with white pieces and one with black pieces. Whenever you capture a piece, you pass it to your team-mate, who can then use the piece instead of moving a piece on his board as the move. The rules that the people I know play allow fairly liberal use of these pieces, e.g. you can put pieces on in check, and in checkmate, but pawns can only go on the 2nd-6th ranks (or 3rd-7th if they're black pawns). Then, add the "stalling" rule we use, whereby as soon as you move, you announce "stalling 1, 2..." and should you get to 10, you can take a piece of the lowest value on the board from it. This can go on indefinitely, taking more and more pawns from the board, giving your team-mate the advantage. If it's a forced mate with pieces on the board however, "stalling" becomes "death count", and you again count from 1 to 10, but upon arriving at 10, you win the game. The first player to get a win, wins the game for his team. It's the exact opposite of what you would normally expect chess to be, players frequently counting their opponent down, or asking their team-mate (often so the opponents can hear) questions like "Can you get me a knight?!"

I ask because juniors seem to really enjoy it. Once we showed people at the school club, that was pretty much all they ever wanted to play. They found it far more interesting than "regular" chess. Anything is possible, because of the rather "freestyle" check and checkmate rules, all sorts of tactics come into it, sacking something on f7 for white is often strong if his partner supplies pieces, castling is often really bad, and there's always the potential for a sudden turnaround should your partner get into trouble, or if you leave a mate-in-one for your opponent, but only if he gets a bishop, or something. You can sometimes get to a situation where stalling is bad, i.e. you create an escape square for your opponent. White will often launch a big attack, while black has to frantically defend. It can get very hectic, but young players seem really enthused by it.

Despite all the positives, it seems to hold a very negative stigma. People overseeing things are often annoyed by the noise. I know from experience that it's a good way to get chess sets mixed up when it comes to putting them back in the box at the end of the games. Indeed, some more "adult" players are keen to turn the other way while it's happening, or suggest to them that they should be playing normal chess instead of a variant.

So, should it be embraced, or shuffled under the carpet?

[Ben Purton]

BUGHOUSE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Ben Purton]

Brings me back to my mid-teens when the sharks had "bug , beer and bongs" as the title to our house parties.

[Gavin Strachan]

I used to play a lot of suicide chess at school. This was quite popular the winner being the player who lost all their pieces first. This goes by a variety of other names such as losers chess. Atomic chess on the net is fun if somewhat weird. Not so keen on Fischer random backrank chess though it has its followers. I think they are all good for improving your regular game. The only snag I found was mentally adjusting from one form to another if you play them close together in time! Explains the blunders!!

[Alex Holowczak]

We once held a suicide chess tournament at school, when I explained that you had to lose, people turned up in their droves. They didn't seem to understand that the opponent was trying to do the same thing, and therefore it'll be much harder. It was an all-time classic moment when the Deputy Head read out in assembly, "All players wishing to take part in a suicide chess tournament should come to R5 at lunchtime." One of those notices I didn't think through.

I was terrible at it though, I went out in the first group stage, which was the last 24. In the end, the 3rd team board 5 won it.

[Neill Cooper]

In the right place it can help the enjoyment of chess, but it can take over, and can be noisy. (Similarly 5 minutes chess)
Its being played most days at school chess club this term. Since it is out of season (no matches) and few come to chess club I think it is fine.
It is good having teams with one strong player and one much weaker player playing a similar pairing - new forms of teamwork are required, and the weaker players can gain a lot from seeing how the strong players play.

[Alex Holowczak]

Neill, do you think people are more interested in playing that than "normal" chess though? Because that's the impression that I get around here.

[Jonathan Bryant]

Aronian is a big fan of bughouse apparently ...


http://streathambrixtonchess.blogspot.c ... -sort.html

[Claire Summerscale]

I ran a national Exchange and Kamikaze (suicide) tournament last year and intend to do the same again this year. I'll let you know when.

Children absolutely love both and actually they can be really good for beginners' chess. Playing a more experienced player against a junior in kamikaze means the new player gets to capture pieces (and more often than not, have the captures pointed out to him), thus learns the moves more quickly and the other player gets to win.

Exchange is just an awesome variation of chess.
Claire

[Simon Williams]

I remember teaming up with Gawain Jones at the European championships to play Bughouse against Loek Van Wely and Tigran Petrosian. It's a great game and I believe it also helps players to understand about how to attack without worrying about any consequences (not always a good thing!). Anyway chess should be fun so bring on any variation that encourages it!

Last chance to enter the 1st Big Slick Chess tournament 26th-28th of June http://www.gingergm.com/big-slick-chess/. Rowson top seed in FIDE open section! No more entries after Wednesday! www.gingergm.com

[Neill Cooper]

Neill, do you think people are more interested in playing that than "normal" chess though? Because that's the impression that I get around here.

They prefer normal chess for competitive matches but enjoy exchange for fun. It is a much more social game - it is quite OK for people to discuss tactics (apart from when strong players give too much advice to weaker players), which does not often happen normal 'friendly' games.

[John Hickman]

Wow, exchange chess, I haven't played that for many years, must be an age thing.

I used to like chess variants. My favourite was Kriegspeil, played with two players having their own set out of sight of each other and a ref relaying moves, and only telling if pawn captures we available (at which you got two guesses).

I made up one of my own variants, called Tarzan chess, played with a normal chess set

Queen = Tarzan - has the combined moves of a queen and knight
King = Jane - same as King, but no castling
Pawns = Jungle - same as pawns, and yes, they can promote to let something new pop out of the Jungle
Bishops = Hunters - as per Bishops, but when they "capture" they don't move - i.e. they shoot it!
Knights = Elephants - Moves like a Knight, but 3 spaces instead of 2 and then 1 to the side. Rather clumsy pieces that can move (crash) though other pieces as per Knight jumps
Rooks = Orangutans - My favourite piece Orangutans swing through other pieces/pawns of either side, to a square next to one of the pieces, or to capture an enemy piece. So on the starting position an Orangutan on a1 can swing to h3. An orangutan that is next to no pieces can't move (they like lots of jungle!). And after say 1. e4 e6 2. d3, Black can't play d5 as then Jane would be in check by both Orangutans.

[Alex Holowczak]

Black can't play d5 as then Jane would be in check by both Orangutans.

I don't think that's ever been said before.

[Kevin Thurlow]

"I made up one of my own variants, called Tarzan chess, played with a normal chess set"

Sounds completely bonkers, John - might try it in the bar at Guernsey one evening!

Kevin

[John Hickman]

"I made up one of my own variants, called Tarzan chess, played with a normal chess set"

Sounds completely bonkers, John - might try it in the bar at Guernsey one evening!

Kevin

Actually that's where it started, in the mid nineties one year at the Peninsula, so there is at least one other person in the world who has played Tarzan chess!

Any spectators who think you are playing a normal game of chess will be very bemused