Chess Variants/Chess with Different Armies

Introduction

Chess with Different Armies is a variant that allows players to select from one of four different armies at game start.

History

Chess with different armies was created by chess variant designer Ralph Betza in 1979. He created and beta-tested many armies for the game but eventually whittled the selection down to just four official armies. Only the official armies shall be covered on this page.

Rules

Chess with different armies is mostly played like the standard game but as its name suggests, with different armies. For the variant, Betza has crafted four unique armies of fairy chess pieces, each of which is designed to be roughly equal to each other in terms of strength but have significantly different properties to each other. Players may either choose the standard chess army, called the Fabulous FIDEs, or they may choose one of the three fairy piece armies: the Colourbound Clobberers, the Remarkable Rookies and the Nutty Knights. The king and pawns are kept the same, but each non-FIDE army replaces the rooks, knights, bishops and queen with new fairy pieces.

Before introducing the armies it will help to know the moves of four fairy pieces - the ferz, alfil, wazir and dabbaba. These four pieces move as follows:

• The ferz steps one square diagonally.
• The alfil jumps two squares diagonally.
• The wazir steps one square forward, backward or sideways.
• The dabbaba jumps two squares forward, backward or sideways.

Many of the pieces in chess with different armies were created by combining the moves of the FIDE pieces with the moves of the ferz, alfil, wazir and dabbaba in unique combinations.

Before a game begins each player selects one of the armies and takes that army's pieces, setting them up on the board in the same place as their FIDE equivalents. The choice may be made by negotiation, by assignment by a third party or by secret choice.

Both players can select the same army, although it is legal for tournament directors to disallow this. If in a tournament where same-army play is forbidden, both players select the same army, Black must break the tie - either by selecting a different army or by keeping theirs and forcing White to choose another.

If a pawn is promoted, it may become any piece present in either army at game start, aside from kings.

How the pieces move

The Colourbound Clobberers

The Colourbound Clobberers are an army with a theme, and that theme is the bishop. Two of its four unique pieces are completely colourbound. The Clobberers also have an unusual material balance - their queen is somewhat weaker and their bishops are stronger.

• The Clobberers' rook equivalent is the bede (notation BD), a piece that can slide diagonally like a bishop or jump two squares forward, backward or sideways like a dabbaba. This piece is somewhat stronger than the FIDE rook under normal circumstances but becomes somewhat weaker in late endgames.
• The Clobberers' knight equivalent is the waffle (notation WA), a piece that can jump two squares diagonally like an alfil or step one square forward, backward or sideways like a wazir. The piece is somewhat weaker than the FIDE knight due to its clumsy movement but can be strong if it gets to a good position.
• The Clobberers' bishop equivalent is the FAD (notation FAD), a piece that can step one square diagonally like a ferz, jump two squares diagonally like an alfil or jump two squares forward, backward or sideways like a dabbaba. This piece is somewhat stronger than the FIDE bishop.
• The Clobberers' queen equivalent is the cardinal (notation NB), a piece that combines the movement of the bishop and the knight. It is weaker than the FIDE queen.

NOTE: If one wishes to castle queenside with the Clobberers, then they move their king from the e-file to the b-file and the bede from the a-file to the c-file. This is done to keep the bede from switching square colours.

The Remarkable Rookies

Out in the ocean lies Rookland, a remarkably rectangular island whose cities sport very straight streets. The pieces that hail from there reflect this in their orthogonal style of play.

• The Rookies' rook equivalent is the short rook (notation R4), a piece that can slide forward, backward or sideways like a rook, but only up to four squares. It is weaker than a FIDE rook but slightly stronger than a FIDE bishop.
• The Rookies' knight equivalent is the woody rook (notation WD), a piece that can step one square forward, backward or sideways like a wazir or jump two squares forward, backward or sideways like a dabbaba.
• The Rookies' bishop equivalent is the half-duck HFD), a piece that can step one square diagonally like a ferz, or jump two or three squares forward, backward or sideways. It has around the same value as a FIDE rook.
• The Rookies' queen equivalent is the chancellor (notation NR), a piece that combines the movement of the rook and the knight. It is around equal in power with the FIDE queen.

The Nutty Knights

This team has been recruited from the homeland of the FIDE knight, where the local pieces have had to learn to leap from peak to peak. Many of these pieces have knight-like moves, and most advance well but cannot easily retreat.

• The Knights' rook equivalent is the charging rook (notation frlRrlbK), a piece that can slide forward or sideways like a rook, or step backwards like a king.
• The Knights' knight equivalent is the fibnif (notation fbNF), a piece that can step one square diagonally like a ferz or jump like a knight to the two forwardmost and backwardmost squares that a knight can move to.
• The Knights' bishop equivalent is the charging knight (notation fhNrlbK), a piece that can jump forward like a knight or step backwards like a king.
• The Knights' queen equivalent is the colonel (notation fhNfrlRK), a piece that can jump forward like a knight, slide forwards or sideways like a rook or step like a king.

Sub-variants

This chess variant does not have any notable sub-variants.