Tag: variant

Posted on in chess, games, thelawofthefolly

The Game Of Chess & The Law Of The Folly

Giuoco Piano Black Follied by Simon Jepps
The Giuoco Piano
In this position, Black has Follied his Knight to f8, instantly granting him options onto g6 or e6 and perhaps even an f Pawn advance.

In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.

And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep.

And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.

A brief history of how I saved the most beautiful game on Earth, with a new law called Follying.

Skip to Folly

God spoke to me when I was a child and we’ve been playing Chess ever since.

Many, many years ago, a very sad thing happened to me. I was playing Chess in the Frome Congress and I was losing two games down with three to go. This isn’t a terrible thing in itself, for a 3 point win now would make all the world of difference.

But it wasn’t the tournament that upset me. It was the game. I was playing a blind man as it happened and although we were even on the board, all of a sudden half way through the game, my mind just stopped.

I’ve seen this all before, I thought. I see this everyday.

Yet these familiar Openings and positions weren’t to be the cornerstone of any success on my part… instead they would prove to be the beginning of a twenty year long battlefield between myself and the stagnation of a stubborn game that refused to change its colours.

For that was precisely it. I had seen this game too many times before.

(more…)

Posted on in chess, games, missionary, variants

To Leap Or Not To Leap

How The Mission Moves
The Mission is a colour bound Rook, with the ability to leap the nearest opposite coloured square. It may also move without leaping, two squares diagonally.
When creating the Mission, it was always the paramount intention to keep the piece as natural to the game as would be wholeheartedly possible.

I first identified the one final remaining natural movement pattern about the Chess board, which had not yet been awarded to any piece.

This was to be, orthogonal colour bound movement.

I next identified a naturally suggested trait of this new piece, which was to be, leaping the nearest orthogonal square.

Since the Mission was colour bound, it only makes natural sense for it to jump the nearest opposite coloured square.

Thence, to improve its prowess and mediation, I would allow it to move two squares diagonally.

This would be the third natural trait… decided by its natural standing footprint of two squares.

However, although from the very first move I desired the piece to leap diagonally also, it would come to pass that my very own equation of naturally dictated design would eventually overthrow any intention I may have to allow it to do so.

(more…)

Posted on in chess, games, missionary, variants

An Understanding Of Mission Design

Missionary Chess Starting Position
Missionary Chess Starting Position

Chessician: noun; an enlightened or master Chess player, yet who’s expertise field of study is more focussed on related subjects such as alternative Chess variants, the inner mechanics of Chess games in general and the ludology of other related board game histories.

The game of Missionary Chess is commonly referred to as a “Chess Variant”, that is any type of game directly descended from Chess but which adopts alternative rules, pieces or boards.

These games, numbering in the thousands, are often invented by Chessicians who wish to further the good cause of evolving the historic game into a more playworthy medium of the modern age. They are also of course invented for fun and the greater majority of variants are invented purely as such ~ fun.

Yet there is a very serious pursuit amongst the academics and professionals of Chess, to evolve the game this century, in order to save it from great decline amongst club players and to bring a fresh new appeal to novices.

The first official promotion of an evolution of Chess was proposed in 1925 by the World Champion Jose Capablanca. He explained how exhaustive studies of Classical Chess will eventually lead to the stagnation of a played out game, prompting a need for it to evolve.

He was and still is, absolutely right.

However in the last century since those words were spoken, Grandmasters and Chessicians alike have been beginning to realise how actually making this “one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind”, truly is on par with landing on the Moon.

As I do hope to explain in this latest Chess blog chapter, the evolution of Chess is bound by its very own nature of peace and must therefore already harbour the answer to our prayers within its very own natural design.

I hope to have solved a universal paradox, which every famous historic master such as Capablanca, Fischer and Seirawan, have tried to address and remedy in their own fantastically creative ways.

The remaining puzzle is why Chess remains a 64 square game, when it is a world wide acknowledged fact that the Classical game needs to evolve. Not only for grandmasters, but for novices alike.

(more…)

Posted on in chess, games, missionary, variants

An Introduction To Missionary Chess

Missionary Chess
Missionary Chess featuring House Of Staunton algebraic eighty board and Masters Games burnt wood pieces.
Chess has been played for centuries upon centuries. It is no doubt the beginning, middle and endgame of all strategy pastimes, old and new. It is undying, and as we approach a new era of Chess evolution, the game ceases to amaze, not only in its ability to grow and inspire… but at the same time, to present a sacred determination to hold onto a divinely given trait that shapes and colours its very own destiny.

That divinely given trait is the natural evolution of peace.

As I will explain in my following Chess blog chapters, the evolution of Chess is bound by its very own nature of peace and will therefore only harbour the answer to our prayers within its very own natural design.

Yet today in this post, I would like to go straight ahead and present to you my own variant, Missionary Chess, which although is but one of hundreds I have designed over the years, it is as I can only solemnly swear, what I believe to be not just the only natural evolution of Chess, but therein… the only possible evolution of Chess.

(more…)

Posted on in cha'nga, chess, create, games, history, life, society, variants, yllwchlk

Cha’nga

Chaturanga
Chaturanga is the sacred origin of a pastime
Rekindling an ancient pastime, by Simon Jepps.

Cha’nga, pronounced “shangaah”, is a version of Chaturanga, which allows just two players to employ the classic four armies.

I invented this game because I know as much as people love Chaturanga, its inconvenience is the requirement of four players.

Creating an understanding as to how only two people can play, in turn sanctifies its misunderstood silence, revealing instead its diversity and adaptability to all walks of life.

But first a truth.

However you interpret history, there is no avoiding the fact that “Chaturanga” literally translates as “the four arms.” It comes from “chatur”, meaning four, and from “anga”, meaning arms.

(more…)