Chess scenarios (2) - Viva La

Another scenario in the series of alternate chess setups. Like the first, this one is also fairly obvious, but it's worth pointing out that the pawns are played with their colour, so the two sides really are in contact already and the pawns a step away from promotion.

It's a reflection of general understanding of what revolution is, a bloody process unlikely to change the underpinnings of a system. That could mean it's now an unlikely event, and that today's revolutions may be internally transformative, growing out from within.

That could mean many revolutions, some of them more like the one shown in that chess game in the Doctor Who story "The Curse of Fenric", in which the colours work together.

In play then, assuming that the black king isn't in check yet owing to the need to protect the white, tactically white and black each have just a single initial option for survival, and strategically the game quickly becomes one of dynamic reordering. Thoughts welcome.

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Chess scenarios (1) - Cat's Away

This was inspired by the discussion with Dave yesterday at the adaptive action post. It's an alternative setup for chess, more or less a scenario. The story should be fairly clear.

For a more classical feel to the title, in French I'd offer Quelle Surprise, or even a risqué La Pénétration Sublime, reflecting the knight's bold breach of defences, in Latin maybe Coitus Interruptus. It is a union, an earthshaking one; two big symbols coming together.

But is it too coarse? For a game of murderous kingdoms, probably not, however elegant the system itself may be. We mostly accept it's better to make love than war, and there are big moral decisions to take in the first couple of moves, if not right the way through.

Any and all comments are welcome, especially on the balance of the forces, but also on what other games could be adapted along the lines of that discussion, and how exactly.

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