Here are six chess variations I got from a book called Games for the Superintelligent, by James F. Fixx. Everything is quoted word for word. I don't know if you'll be able to program all of them into SICO.
• Replacement chess: men are not removed from the board. When captures are made, the pieces are replaced on the board at a position chosen by the player who makes the capture. One must win by effectively cutting off the enemy king from his own forces.
• Progression chess: pawns do not "queen" but instead increase in power as they advance. The pawn on the fifth rank has the movement of the knight, on the sixth of a bishop, on the seventh of a rook, on the eighth of a queen. Moving backward, it loses its power the same way. Otherwise the game is played the same as standard chess.
• Check: the winner is the first to give a simple check; mate is not necessary. The games are usually quite short.
• Addition chess: another variety of progressive chess where the progression is in the number of moves. White opens with one move, Black takes two moves, White makes three, Black four, and so forth.
• Cylindrical chess: the board is imagined to be a cylinder with the edges adjoining, pieces slipping freely from one side of the board to the other. There are, in other words, no side edges.
• Secret arrangement of pieces: a screen is placed at the midpoint of the board and each player arranges his men as he chooses. |