bluegargantua (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
bluegargantua) wrote2016-04-19 05:32 pm
bluegargantua) wrote2016-04-19 05:32 pm
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I've been watching a lot of chess videos lately...
Traitor! A chess variant:
Set up pieces as normal. Each player is randomly assigned a number from 1 - 8 which they write down and keep secret.
That number identifies a pawn of the opponent that is secretly a traitor working for the player.
1 = Queen's Rook Pawn
2 = Queen's Knight Pawn
3 = Queen's Bishop Pawn
etc. etc.
The traitor is used in one of three ways:
1.) On your move, you can reveal your number and the appropriate pawn of your opponent is replaced with a pawn of your color. It's now a pawn under you control and moves and acts like any other pawn you have.
2) When your opponent is about to use a pawn to capture one of your pawns/pieces, and it's your traitor pawn, you can reveal your number proving that pawn to be a traitor. Replace the traitor pawn with a pawn of your color. The pawn now moves and acts like a normal pawn of yours. The intended capture never takes place.
3.) Should your opponent advance the traitor pawn to the back rank, you must reveal it to be a traitor. The pawn is replaced with one of your color as above.
I had the idea that you could also reveal the traitor and then immediately capture an opponent's piece, but I think that would cause games to grind down -- you'd be trying to make space for your pieces to avoid getting traitor'd. Plus, you'd mostly want to use it on turn 1 to wipe out a piece.
Obviously, it's going to suck if you get a flank pawn for a traitor while you opponent has one of your central pawns, but I think it would be fun for the uncertainty factor.
Set up pieces as normal. Each player is randomly assigned a number from 1 - 8 which they write down and keep secret.
That number identifies a pawn of the opponent that is secretly a traitor working for the player.
1 = Queen's Rook Pawn
2 = Queen's Knight Pawn
3 = Queen's Bishop Pawn
etc. etc.
The traitor is used in one of three ways:
1.) On your move, you can reveal your number and the appropriate pawn of your opponent is replaced with a pawn of your color. It's now a pawn under you control and moves and acts like any other pawn you have.
2) When your opponent is about to use a pawn to capture one of your pawns/pieces, and it's your traitor pawn, you can reveal your number proving that pawn to be a traitor. Replace the traitor pawn with a pawn of your color. The pawn now moves and acts like a normal pawn of yours. The intended capture never takes place.
3.) Should your opponent advance the traitor pawn to the back rank, you must reveal it to be a traitor. The pawn is replaced with one of your color as above.
I had the idea that you could also reveal the traitor and then immediately capture an opponent's piece, but I think that would cause games to grind down -- you'd be trying to make space for your pieces to avoid getting traitor'd. Plus, you'd mostly want to use it on turn 1 to wipe out a piece.
Obviously, it's going to suck if you get a flank pawn for a traitor while you opponent has one of your central pawns, but I think it would be fun for the uncertainty factor.
no subject
This is a brilliant game mechanic, and I kind of want to ditch work right now and give it a try. I had a concern that one would want to pull the trigger on the traitor right away to blast a hole in the opponent's defenses, but that would be balanced by your opponent suddenly being more developed while you're still stuck in opening position. The one exception might be if your traitor is the king's bishop pawn, which would automatically force their king into the open.
no subject
Yeah, basically when you activate the traitor that's your move. Situations 2/3 are interrupts, but still, you just replace the pawn. The interrupt is potentially more devastating since the opponent loses his move and you've probably got a juicy target for your traitor on your move.
I'd forgotten about the King Bishop Pawn and yeah, you would want to fire that one immediately -- the King loses castle rights, gets exposed and if you're White, you don't even lose a tempo. That also suggests that openings that start with f2-f4 or f7-f5 would be fairly popular.
But I suspect that even in this case, the value you gain from disrupting the King immediately is offset by the by the fact that your opponent now plays with certainty. You've shot your wad and they never have to second-guess their movements, but you have to worry about every pawn you move.
later
Tom