HORATIO
O day and night, but this is wondrous strange!
HAMLET
And therefore as a stranger give it welcome.
There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,
Than are dreamt of in your philosophy. But come...
William Shakespeare
Stalker (3-in-1)
Kosintsev I.G.
kosintsev.i.g@gmail.com
(20.10.2019)
Stalker is a chess variant created especially for inventors of various unfair strange curious peculiar chess pieces. In essence, this game is transposition of well-known Carrera's (1617), Bird's (1874) or Capablanca's (1920s) chess on a classical 8x8 board based on the idea of Shatranj's tabbiyyas. Two unfair pieces are arranged near King and Queen: Fantom near King, and Dragon near Queen. It's clear that extra pieces can represent or be interpreted as any invented pieces, for example, as Cardinal and Marshall or something else. It's also important that players nead only two checkers (obverse and reverse) in addition to the standard chess set. They can use the now popular 3-in-1 chess set.
The initial position is as shown in the diagram:
The yellow pieces:
1. Pawn (P): a3, b3, c3, d3, e3, f3, g3, h3 (8 pieces).
2. Knight (N): c2, f2 (2 pieces).
3. Bishop (B): d2, e2 (2 pieces).
4. Rook (R): b2, g2 (2 pieces).
5. Fantom (F): c1 (1 piece).
6. Dragon (D): f1 (1 piece).
7. Queen (Q): e1 (1 piece).
8. King (K): d1 (1 piece).
The green pieces:
1. Pawn (P): a6, b6, c6, d6, e6, f6, g6, h6 (8 pieces).
2. Knight (N): c7, f7 (2 pieces).
3. Bishop (B): d7, e7 (2 pieces).
4. Rook (R): b7, g7 (2 pieces).
5. Fantom (F): f1 (1 piece).
6. Dragon (D): c1 (1 piece).
7. Queen (Q): d1 (1 piece).
8. King (K): e1 (1 piece).
All rules are classical, excluding features of extra pieces.
Castling is the King’s leap through one piece to the left or two pieces to the right.
Of course, this game can be used to assess the real strength (relative value) of chess pieces. But such a mercantile idea contradicts the philosophy of chess as a combinatorial game in which all depends on the position.
This means that every class of aditional pieces has its own appropriate more sutable Fisher's permutation of pieces. For example, for weak pieces is better such initial position.
The perfect initial position of Stalker is such:
This game can be played also with a dropping.
Literature:
1. Авербах Ю.Л.
Шахматная школа: Курс лекций для шахматистов-разрядников.
Ростов-на-Дону: издательство «Феникс», 2004.
2. Стругацкий Б.Н., Стругацкий А.Н.
Пикник на обочине.
3. Александр Беляев
Голова профессора Доуэля.
KM Classic, 2018.
4. Владимир Набоков
Защита Лужина.
Изд.: Азбука-классика, 2006.
