Omega Chess is one of the chess variations invented by Daniel MacDonald of Toronto in 1992. The game is played on a 10 by 10 square board with additional squares in each corner of the square (104 cells in total). In these additional cells at the beginning of the game are " sorcerers " ( English wizard ). The arrangement of the pieces on the board corresponds to ordinary chess , and the champions are located in the extreme corner cells, each of which has a sorcerer on the diagonal (see diagram on the right).
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One of the reasons for adding new shapes was the idea of aligning the number of jumping shapes with the number of sliding shapes. The sorcerer was created as a figure tied to his cell color, similar to an elephant. Due to the symmetry and four additional corner cells, Omega chess creates additional tactical opportunities, including the ability to checkmate with two horses or one queen without the help of the king .
Omega chess found support among a number of grandmasters , including Michael Rode [1] and Alex Scherzer .
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There is one more variant of omega-chess - figures of marshal and lieutenant are added (diagram on the bottom right).
Chess Differences
New Shapes
New pieces in Omega chess are similar to jumping pieces from some types of historical chess , but at the same time, the ability to go to neighboring fields solves the inconvenience of using similar historical pieces, which ultimately led to their “extinction” [2] .
- Champion : jumps 2 squares in any direction or 1 square vertically or horizontally. The white champion, located on the king’s side, can start the game with Ch2 or Cj2 . On the diagram, his moves are marked with an X. In this case, the champion cannot take the white horse.
- Sorcerer : a figure tied to the color of the cells that jumps onto the cells {1,3} or {3,1} in any direction, or diagonally onto one cell. The white sorcerer from the king’s side can start the game with the move Wj2 . The black sorcerer’s moves are indicated by black dots on the diagram. He can take a white horse.
Pawns
- A pawn can go one, two or three squares forward on the first move. This is shown in columns (a), (b) and (d), respectively.
- The attack, transformation and moves of the pawns after the first move are identical to the pawn in standard chess .
- The Take Aisle Rule is also applicable. Pawn d can be taken on the aisle of any of the black pawns c .
Castling
The usual rules for castling the king and one of the rooks apply. As in traditional chess, the king can move two squares to the side in both directions: h0 for white or h9 for the black king for castling with the rook closest to the king, and d0 or d9 for castling with the far rook (see diagram) ) The disadvantage of castling in Omega Chess, compared to classical chess, is the fact that after any castling in Omega Chess, one or two unprotected pawns appear between the king and the edge of the board (if the champion has already been removed from the starting position), which is significant degree weakens the protective effect of castling.
Cell Designation
As can be seen in the diagrams, the rows are denoted from 0 to 9, and the corner cells behind the cells a0, j0, j9 and a9 are denoted by w1 , w2 , w3 and w4, respectively. It is worth noting that these cells are full-fledged playing fields in the game, and all pieces (except rooks and pawns) can go to them.
Game Examples
Grandmaster Alex Scherzer versus Grandmaster Judit Polgar
1. f4 d5 2. Nd2 Ng7 3. Wa2 Cc7 4. Ng2 f7 5. Wj2 Wa7 6. e4 dxe4 7. Nxe4 Bb4 + 8. Be1 Nd7 9. c3 Be7 10. Wi5 OO 11. d4 Cc6 12. Bd3 b5 13. b4 Wd6 14. Cc2 Wj7 15. Ch2 Wi4 16. Nh4 Wh5 17. Wd1 We3 + 18. Kg0 c7 19. i4 Wg4 20. Be2 Wd5 21. Rc0 Bb7 22. Nc5 Black attacks with great force on the white king. Perhaps White should play the knight on g5 instead of c5. 22. ... Nxc5 23. bxc5 Qd8 24. Qh3 Wxh4 25. Bxh4 At this turn, or at the next, it seems that it will be possible to recover thanks to the Champion. 25. ... Bxh4 26. Wxh4 Ch7 27. Wg2 Ce4 28. Cxe4 Wxe4 29. Qj3 j7 30. i5 i6 31. Wxg7 hxg7 32. Ri3 Ki8 33. Qj4 Rh9 34. Rj3 Ci7 35. Re0 Qf6 36. Bc0 e6 37. Bb1 Wf5 38. Wxf5 exf5 39. Re8 Rh8 40. Rje3 g6 41. Qi3 Qg7 42. j4 b4! (see diagram) Black seized the initiative. 43. R8e5 bxc3 44. Rxc3 Bxh1 + 45. Kxh1 Rxb1 46. Ra3 Ch7 47. Ra8 Ch5 48. Ra9 Qh7 49. Ree9 ?? Cj3 +! 50. Qxj3 Qh2 + 0-1 [3]
Baby mat and stupid mat
1.f4 f5 2. Bc4 Bc5 3. Qj5 Ng7 ?? (defending the pawn on f5, but yawning checkmate) 4. Qxg8 #
1. Wa2 Ng7 2. Wb5 Ni6 ?? 3. We6 #
Omega Chess Development and Options
In 2008, the Omega Chess Authors developed an extended version called Omega Chess Advanced [4] .
- Introduced a new Fool figure.
- This piece has no initial position, and it is put on the board by the player at will at the same time as his next move.
- A jester can be put forward by any move that his own figure walks for the first time for the game from his original position. In this case, the clown is set on the field from which his resembling figure has crossed.
- A jester walks like the previous opponent’s piece walked, so the jester after each opponent’s move copies the behavior of his last resembling piece.
- A new move guard (English Guarding) was introduced to protect the queen, similar to castling.
- Optional rule extensions introduced
- The new knight Templar figure is an extended version of the horse, which can walk and take, like a normal horse, and only walk one square diagonally further (see diagram to the right). This expansion is dictated by the desire to compensate for the reduced value of the horse on a larger board.
- immobilization - a jester can “freeze” any figure if it becomes in close proximity to it. In order to free your figure from immobilization, you must pick up the enemy jester with another figure or put him next to the blocked figure in his jester. In the diagram, the black queen is immobilized by a white buffoon. Black dots depict other cells that a white buffoon could cross over to immobilize the black queen. If the black buffoon moves to one of the cells marked with a black dot, the black queen will be freed from immobilization.
Some chess sites implement a variant of Omega chess blindly .
See also
- Chess
- Chess Capablanca
- Grand chess
- Gothic chess
- Chess options
Notes
- ↑ Reviews of the Grandmasters (Eng.) Archived on October 12, 2007. .
- ↑ Omega Chess Review by Benjamin S. Goode (English) (inaccessible link) .
- ↑ Example of playing Omega Chess An archived copy of February 22, 2012 on the Wayback Machine with the ability to view moves using JavaScript.
- ↑ Advanced Omega Chess Archived on April 28, 2009.