Fairy Chess

Thanks for sharing!!!

So how long is a game typically?

That is typically the weak point of variants that put a large number of pieces on a huge board: they tend to drag on an eternity. Probably 500-1000 moves in this case. Early checkmates are impossible as long as there still are enough pieces to deeply bury the King.

What compounds the problem is that, due to the large depth of the board, the strong sliders will encounter each other first, and will get traded out of the game as these are powerful enough to easily attack each other. And then you are left with a host of weak pieces that slowly creep over the board.

The solution to this problem used in historically successful large games, such as Chu Shogi (2x46 pieces on 12x12), Tenjiku Shogi (2x78 pieces on 16x16) or Maka Dai Dai Shogi (2x96 pieces on 19x19) are to have just a few pieces that are very much stronger than the others, (often capable of multiple capture or hit-and-run capture, against which it is very hard to defend), and can easily destroy large packs of weak pieces. And then often have additional rules that forbid or make it impossible to trade these pieces out of the game. This enormously speeds up reducing the number of weak pieces compared when these had to fight each other, and facilitates locally breaking through a thick wall of defenders.

Tenjiku Shogi also has sliding pieces that can capture (and thus check) while jumping over an arbitrary number of normal pieces (but not over each other). Such pieces present a danger to the King from the very beginning, making checkmates a possibility even on a massively populated board. It is like an aireal battle taking place on a near empty board is conducted in parallel to a massive ground battle. And the possibility for air strikes makes the defense of the ground positions much more fragile.

What I am saying is basically that variants of this size sorely need the equivalent of cruise missiles and tactical nukes to make them appealing. Otherwise it is just too tedious to play them.

That is typically the weak point of variants that put a large number of pieces on a huge board: they tend to drag on an eternity. Probably 500-1000 moves in this case. Early checkmates are impossible as long as there still are enough pieces to deeply bury the King.

What compounds the problem is that, due to the large depth of the board, the strong sliders will encounter each other first, and will get traded out of the game as these are powerful enough to easily attack each other. And then you are left with a host of weak pieces that slowly creep over the board.

The solution to this problem used in historically successful large games, such as Chu Shogi (2x46 pieces on 12x12), Tenjiku Shogi (2x78 pieces on 16x16) or Maka Dai Dai Shogi (2x96 pieces on 19x19) are to have just a few pieces that are very much stronger than the others, (often capable of multiple capture or hit-and-run capture, against which it is very hard to defend), and can easily destroy large packs of weak pieces. And then often have additional rules that forbid or make it impossible to trade these pieces out of the game. This enormously speeds up reducing the number of weak pieces compared when these had to fight each other, and facilitates locally breaking through a thick wall of defenders.

Tenjiku Shogi also has sliding pieces that can capture (and thus check) while jumping over an arbitrary number of normal pieces (but not over each other). Such pieces present a danger to the King from the very beginning, making checkmates a possibility even on a massively populated board. It is like an aireal battle taking place on a near empty board is conducted in parallel to a massive ground battle. And the possibility for air strikes makes the defense of the ground positions much more fragile.

What I am saying is basically that variants of this size sorely need the equivalent of cruise missiles and tactical nukes to make them appealing. Otherwise it is just too tedious to play them.

That is typically the weak point of variants that put a large number of pieces on a huge board: they tend to drag on an eternity. Probably 500-1000 moves in this case. Early checkmates are impossible as long as there still are enough pieces to deeply bury the King.

That is typically the weak point of variants that put a large number of pieces on a huge board: they tend to drag on an eternity. Probably 500-1000 moves in this case. Early checkmates are impossible as long as there still are enough pieces to deeply bury the King.

What compounds the problem is that, due to the large depth of the board, the strong sliders will encounter each other first, and will get traded out of the game as these are powerful enough to easily attack each other. And then you are left with a host of weak pieces that slowly creep over the board.

The solution to this problem used in historically successful large games, such as Chu Shogi (2x46 pieces on 12x12), Tenjiku Shogi (2x78 pieces on 16x16) or Maka Dai Dai Shogi (2x96 pieces on 19x19) are to have just a few pieces that are very much stronger than the others, (often capable of multiple capture or hit-and-run capture, against which it is very hard to defend), and can easily destroy large packs of weak pieces. And then often have additional rules that forbid or make it impossible to trade these pieces out of the game. This enormously speeds up reducing the number of weak pieces compared when these had to fight each other, and facilitates locally breaking through a thick wall of defenders.

Tenjiku Shogi also has sliding pieces that can capture (and thus check) while jumping over an arbitrary number of normal pieces (but not over each other). Such pieces present a danger to the King from the very beginning, making checkmates a possibility even on a massively populated board. It is like an aireal battle taking place on a near empty board is conducted in parallel to a massive ground battle. And the possibility for air strikes makes the defense of the ground positions much more fragile.

What I am saying is basically that variants of this size sorely need the equivalent of cruise missiles and tactical nukes to make them appealing. Otherwise it is just too tedious to play them.

That is typically the weak point of variants that put a large number of pieces on a huge board: they tend to drag on an eternity. Probably 500-1000 moves in this case. Early checkmates are impossible as long as there still are enough pieces to deeply bury the King.

What compounds the problem is that, due to the large depth of the board, the strong sliders will encounter each other first, and will get traded out of the game as these are powerful enough to easily attack each other. And then you are left with a host of weak pieces that slowly creep over the board.

The solution to this problem used in historically successful large games, such as Chu Shogi (2x46 pieces on 12x12), Tenjiku Shogi (2x78 pieces on 16x16) or Maka Dai Dai Shogi (2x96 pieces on 19x19) are to have just a few pieces that are very much stronger than the others, (often capable of multiple capture or hit-and-run capture, against which it is very hard to defend), and can easily destroy large packs of weak pieces. And then often have additional rules that forbid or make it impossible to trade these pieces out of the game. This enormously speeds up reducing the number of weak pieces compared when these had to fight each other, and facilitates locally breaking through a thick wall of defenders.

Tenjiku Shogi also has sliding pieces that can capture (and thus check) while jumping over an arbitrary number of normal pieces (but not over each other). Such pieces present a danger to the King from the very beginning, making checkmates a possibility even on a massively populated board. It is like an aireal battle taking place on a near empty board is conducted in parallel to a massive ground battle. And the possibility for air strikes makes the defense of the ground positions much more fragile.

What I am saying is basically that variants of this size sorely need the equivalent of cruise missiles and tactical nukes to make them appealing. Otherwise it is just too tedious to play them.

And it takes less than 100 moves if ur opponent plays horribly

I decided to take my own advice for designing a huge chess variant (56 pieces per player):

Let's call it 'Mother of Battles'. All FIDE pieces participate, and most other pieces are commonly used fairy pieces. (Elementary leapers like Camel (3,1) and Zebra (3,2), Modern Elephant, the promoted Bishop and Rook from Shogi, The Cannon from Xiangqi, and its diagonal equivalent, the Champion from Omega Chess, the RN and BN compounds from Capablanca Chess.) There are also two 'bent sliders', which move along a trajectory that makes a 45-degree turn after the first step (Griffon and Rhino). In Interactive Diagram where you can call up all move diagrams can be found here.

Non-standard features, added to shorten the length of the typical game, are:

* A somewhat smaller board than would be required for having the normal piece density of 50% for this number of pieces, so that the distance between the armies can be smaller, and the leaping pieces need fewer moves to engage in battle.

* Flying pieces: Eagle, Raven and Bat are a Queen, Rook and Bishop that can jump over arbitrary many pieces to capture (or check), but not over each other or over an Archer (a minor piece that cannot fly itself, but can kill aerial targets). This means that you don't have to grind away dozens of pieces before the King gets exposed enough to checkmate it. Indeed, the fastest checkmate (the equivalent of fool's mate) only takes two moves. (With the aid of a Bat. Can you see it?)

* A second wave of promotable pieces: the 2nd rank contains 6 'Warriors', pawn-like pieces designed especially for this variant. Pawns make up a much smaller fraction of the pieces in variants that populate multiple ranks with pieces, so that there is a large risk you will run out of those. And without Pawns to promote it is difficult to make progress. The Warriors can survive more easily because they do not start in the front line.

* A Monstrously strong piece (Queen + Knight + double King move), subject to a rule that forbids trading it, so that it remains around much longer. So it can massacre the weaker pieces, which would annihilate each other only slowly when left on their own.

My hope is that together these features accelerate the game enough so that it becomes well playable.