Chess Capablanca

Chess of Capablanca uses a game board with a size of 10 × 8 fields (the position of the board is with the broad sides to the players). The pieces are similar to chess, but two combined pieces have been added: the chancellor and the archbishop and, accordingly, two additional pawns .

•   - Chancellor - a combined figure that combines the capabilities of a horse and a rook .
•   - The archbishop is a combined figure combining the functions of a horse and an elephant .

At the beginning of the game, the pieces are arranged similarly to classical chess, the chancellor is placed on the vertical h, the archbishop is placed on the vertical c. All the rules of the game are similar to the classical ones, except that when castling, the king does not move two fields towards the rook , but three.

Despite the legend spread by Capblanca’s ill-wishers that he proposed a change of rules, being annoyed by the loss to Alekhine , in reality Capablanca began to design new chess variants back in the years when he was the reigning champion. The main motive for this work was the fear of the imminent death of classical chess. In the years of the championship of Capablanca in world chess, the process of rapid development of chess theory really went along with the rapidly growing share of draws in competitions of strong chess players. This gave rise to fears that the theory would soon reach a level where anyone who possessed it sufficiently could draw the game in a draw against any opponent.

The option described above is final. But the development of new chess was carried out by Capablanca for several years, there were other options for the modified game.

• In one of the variants of new chess proposed by Capablanca, the game was played on a 16 × 12 board, each player had a double set of chess pieces: four rooks , four elephants , four knights , two queens , two kings and sixteen pawns . All figures walked the usual rules of chess, the pawn could only on the first move to go immediately to the four fields (white - from the second to the sixth horizontal, black - from eleventh to seventh). To win, it was required to checkmate any of the opponent's kings. Capablanca tested this option in 1929 in an experimental match with G. Maroci . Parties lasted at least a hundred moves, taking 12-15 hours each.
• Playing on the board 10 × 10. Sets of pieces - one for regular chess plus the chancellor and the archbishop. The chancellor was located on the board directly to the right of the king (vertical g), the archbishop - to the left of the queen (vertical d). The pawn could move into three fields with the first move (white - from the second to the fifth horizontal, black - from the ninth to the sixth). Capture on the aisle was allowed if the pawn during the “long” first move for any number of squares passed the opponent’s pawn standing on the adjacent vertical.
• A 10 × 8 board, pieces and arrangement are similar to the previous version, a pawn moves like in chess.
• The 10 × 10 board, the chancellor and the archbishop are on the verticals h and c, respectively. Other rules as in the first version of the game on the hundred-cell board.

Similar chess variants were created before. First Famous - Carrera Chess

There are two modern modified versions of Capablanca chess: Gothic Chess and Grand Chess .

• Chess Carrera
• Gothic chess
• Grand Chess
• Omega chess
• Chess options