Misplaced Pages

Revision as of 07:03, 3 December 2012

	a	b	c	d	e	f	g	h
8									8
7									7
6									6
5									5
4									4
3									3
2									2
1									1
	a	b	c	d	e	f	g	h

Antichess (also called Losing chess, Losing Game, Zero chess, Giveaway chess, Suicide chess, Killer chess, Take-me chess, Reverse chess, or Shmess) is a chess variant in which the objective of the players is to get all of their pieces captured. The most widely played variation, as described in the book Popular Chess Variants by D.B. Pritchard, is explained below.

Rules

The rules of the game are the same as those of chess except for the following special rules:

• Capturing is compulsory.
• When more than one capture is available, the player may choose.
• The king has no royal power and accordingly:
  • It may be captured like any other piece.
  • There is no check or checkmate.
  • There is no castling.
  • Pawns may promote also to king.
• Stalemate is a win for the stalemated player.

A player wins by losing all his pieces, or being stalemated. Apart from move repetition, draw by agreement, and the fifty-move rule, the game is also drawn when a win is impossible (such as if a dark-squared bishop and a light-squared bishop are the only pieces remaining).

Because of the forced capture rule, Antichess games often involve long sequences of forced captures by one player. This means that a minor mistake can ruin the game. Losing openings include 1.e4, 1.d4, 1.d3, 1.Nf3, 1.Nc3, 1.f4, 1.h4, 1.b4, 1.h3. Some of these openings took months of computer time to solve, but the wins against 1.e4, 1.d4, and 1.d3 consist of a single series of forced captures and can be played from memory by most experienced players.

Variations

Variation 1

Rules the same as the main rules, except:

• Pawns promote only to queens.
• Stalemate is a draw.

Variation 2

Rules the same as the main rules, except:

• The king has royal powers, and removing check takes precedence over capturing.
• A player wins by reducing his forces to just his king, or by checkmating the opponent.
• Stalemate is a draw.

Variation 3

Rules the same as variant 2, except:

• A player wins by reducing his forces to just his king, or by being checkmated.

Variation 4

Rules the same as the main rules, except:

• Stalemate is a win for the player with the fewer number of pieces, and if both have the same number it is a draw. The type of the piece makes no difference (FICS rules).

Kamikaze chess variation

Kamikaze chess is similar to Antichess, but with one main difference, which is that players must lose their king last.

As with Antichess, players must capture at every opportunity and may choose if more than one piece can be taken. Players must not move into check until they have only the king left. If an opponent's move puts them in check, they must get out of it, as per standard chess. If they have only the king left, they can just make a move which still leaves them in check, their opponent must take the king and then the player who has lost his king is the winner. If they are checkmated before all the other pieces are gone, they lose. Pawns may only promote to queens.

Loser's chess variation

Losing Chess (aka Suicide Chess) has been a popular chess variant on most chess servers that have offered it ever since the early days of the ICS. It's a simple variant, where the goal is to lose the chess game, but with several conditions attached to the rules. There are two major variants played online, Losers Chess (aka w17) played on ICC, which actually created the variant because they were unable to implement the free ICSes' suicide chess rules. The goal in both games is to lose all of your pieces, although in Losers Chess, you can also win by getting checkmated. Checks do not exist in suicide chess. This is also one of the oldest chess variants in existence.

References

• Pritchard, D. B. (2000). "Losing Chess". Popular Chess Variants. B.T. Batsford Ltd. pp. 32–38. ISBN 0-7134-8578-7.
• Pritchard, D. B. (2007). "Playing to lose". The Classified Encyclopedia of Chess Variants. John Beasley. pp. 85–89. ISBN 978-0-9555168-0-1.
• Pritchard, D. B. (1994). "Losing Chess". The Encyclopedia of Chess Variants. Games & Puzzles Publications. pp. 176–79. ISBN 0-9524142-0-1.

External links

• Losing Chess by Hans Bodlaender, The Chess Variant Pages
• "KPanta". Freecode. – AntiChess Game for Linux
• Play Antichess online
• Nilatac's Suicide Opening Book
• The complete review of suicide chess by Fabrice Liardet
• An interesting look on suicide chess by Vladica Andrejić
• Web site of Stan Goldovski, pioneer of suicide
• SuicideChess
• Play Antichess online (Suicide and Losers variants which does not work)

• Chess variants
• Article Feedback 5