Chess with different armies (or Betza's Chess[1] or Equal Armies[2]) is a chess variant invented by Ralph Betza in 1979. Two sides use different sets of fairy pieces. There are several armies of equal strength to choose from, including the standard FIDE army. In all armies, kings and pawns are the same as in FIDE chess, but the four other pieces are different.
Rules and armies
Before the game players choose their armies in a certain way, predefined by tournament rules. This can be done either randomly or secretly by both players. Each player has a choice of 4 armies:[3] the Fabulous FIDEs, which are the standard chess pieces, the Colorbound Clobberers, the Nutty Knights, and the Remarkable Rookies.
All armies are designed to be equal in strength but have significantly different properties. Kings and pawns move the same as in chess for all armies. Pawns can only promote to pieces of either army on the board at the start. Castling is done as in standard chess with the exception of the case when the rook replacement is colorbound, like in the Colorbound Clobberers army. In the latter case, the king, when castling long, moves to b1, and the rook replacement to c1. This is so that colorbound pieces do not change square color.
Ferz (notation F).
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Alfil (notation A), can jump.
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Wazir (notation W).
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Dabbaba (notation D), can jump.
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Many pieces in the following armies are combinations of standard chess pieces and 4 fairy pieces: ferz, alfil, wazir and dabbaba (see their movement diagrams above). The game can be played with standard chess pieces, and the following move diagrams use standard pieces as well (except queens).
Colorbound Clobberers
In this army, rooks, knights, bishops, and queen are replaced by the following pieces:
Bede (notation BD). Moves as bishop or dabbaba, hence the name. Can jump for dabbaba moves.
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Waffle (notation WA). Moves as wazir or alfil, hence the name. Can jump for all moves.
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FAD (notation FAD). Moves as ferz, alfil or dabbaba, hence the name. Can jump for all moves.
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As mentioned, when using this army and castling queenside, the king moves three squares (from e1 to b1) and the bede moves from a1 to c1.
A weakness of the Colorbound Clobberers are the unprotected pawns at a2 and h2. To cure this weakness, the positions of the waffle and the FAD can be switched. This alternate setup was already proposed by Ralph Betza and is named Colorbound Clobberers II.
Nutty Knights
This army includes a lot of leapers, but most of them have asymmetrical move patterns, with backward moves being restricted.
Charging rook, originally furlrurlbakking (notation frlRrlbK), moves forward and sideways as a rook, or backward as a king.
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Fibnif (notation fbNF). Moves as ferz, or as a knight for its two vertically longest forward and backward moves. Can jump for knight moves.
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Charging knight, originally forfnibakking (notation fhNrlbK). Moves as king backward and sideways or as a knight forward. Can jump for all moves.
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Colonel, originally forfnifurlrurking (notation fhNfrlRK). Moves as king, or as rook forward and sideways, or as knight forward. Can jump for knight moves.
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Remarkable Rookies
The rooks, knights, bishops, and queen are replaced by the following pieces:
Short rook (notation W4). Moves as rook, but not more than 4 spaces.
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Woody rook (notation WD). Moves as dabbaba or as wazir. Can jump for all moves.
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Chancellor (notation RN). Moves as rook or knight. Can jump for knight moves.
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Strength of the armies
The armies were playtested in human play among chess masters and considered balanced at the time of their release. They were not playtested in computer games because at the time no engines playing chess variants were available. The release of Zillions of Games did not change the original assessment.
In 2010, H.G. Muller tested the Colourbound Clobberers and the Nutty Knights in the stronger engine Fairy-Max and found that both armies were significantly stronger than the FIDE pieces.[4] He found that the Nutty Knights had an advantage of slightly more than a pawn above the FIDEs, and the Clobberers slightly less than a pawn. He also notes that the advantage of the Clobberers as an army is smaller than expected from the piece values alone.
In 2015 Fairy-Max was extended to handle limited sliders such as the Short Rook from the Remarkable Rookies. H.G. Muller ran a test of all four official armies against each other with the following result:[5]
Black White
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R | N | C | F | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rookies | N/a | +3% | +13% | +15% | +62% |
| Nutters | -3% | N/a | +3% | +12% | +19% |
| Clobberers | -13% | +0% | N/a | +8% | -11% |
| FIDE | -16% | -10% | -10% | N/a | -71% |
In agreement with previous tests, it seems that the Rookies are the strongest, being only marginally stronger than the Nutters, while the Clobberers seem to be about half-way in strength between the Nutters and FIDE. The statistical error in 400 games is 2%, so from the 3% of the Rookies-Nutters result, it can be decided with >90% confidence that the Rookies indeed have the better chances here.
Proposed adjustments to the official armies
In light of the newer strength evaluations, several weakenings of the official armies were proposed. In 2012 J. Knappen proposed an adjustment to the Nutty Knights named Drunken Nights.[6] Here the Charging Knight is weakened by removing the step directly backwards, decreasing its endgame value. The resulting piece is called Drunken Night.
In 2015 J. Knappen discussed some weakenings of the Remarkable Rookies and the Colorbound Clobberers, including the weakening of the Bede to a piece named Busy Beaver, where the Dabbaba jump is replaced by a zigzag sliding move to the same square.[7] In 2016, Double sharp and H.G. Muller came up with playtested proposals for the Clobberers and the Rookies. In the Clobberers, the FAD is replaced by the Prime Minister. In the Rookies, the Short Rook is even shorter and has now only two steps in each orthogonal direction.
Drunken night (notation fhNrlWbF). Moves as ferz backwards, one step orthogonally sideways, or as a knight forward. Can jump for all moves.
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Prime minister (notation FmaF). Moves as ferz and can continue moving as a ferz again. It need not take both steps. It must stop when it captures. It can return to its starting square, allowing the player to skip a turn.
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Short rook (notation W2). Moves as rook, but not more than two spaces.
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Unofficial armies
The four armies described above were playtested by Ralph Betza and selected as the most balanced ones. There are other armies, invented by Betza and other people, some of which are presented here.
In the initial version of the game, there were 8 armies[1] and, in these armies, the king moved differently from the king in the standard chess. Instead of normal pawns, fairy pawns could be selected – for example, Berolina pawns. However, later Betza abandoned the idea of using fairy pieces for king and pawns[8] and reduced the number of armies to four.
Forward FIDEs (Ralph Betza)
The rooks, knights, bishops, and queen are replaced by the following pieces:[9]
Charging rook (notation fsWWbFW). Moves forward and sideways as a rook, or backward as a king. This piece is also in the Nutty Knights army.
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Knishop (notation fhNbFF). Moves forwards as knight or backwards as bishop. Can jump for knight moves.
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Bishight (notation fFFbhN). Moves forwards as bishop or backwards as knight. Can jump for knight moves.
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Forequeen (notation fsWWfFFbhNWF). Moves forwards or sideways as queen, or backwards as a king or knight. Can jump for knight moves.
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Meticulous Mashers (Ralph Betza)
The rooks, knights, bishops, and queen are replaced by the following pieces:[10]
Forfer (notation FR4). Moves as ferz, or up to 4 spaces as rook.
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Fibnif (notation fbNF). Moves as ferz, or as a knight for its two longest forward and backward moves. This piece is also in the Nutty Knights army.
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B4nD (notation B4nD). Moves up to 4 spaces as bishop, or exactly 2 spaces as rook. It cannot jump over other pieces.
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N2R4 (notation N2R4). Moves up to 4 spaces as rook, or makes up to 2 consecutive knight moves in the same direction. Can jump for knight moves, but the first must end on an empty space to be able to make a second one.
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All-Around Allstars (Ralph Betza)
This army is made of one piece from each of the main armies. Out of the 12 eligible combinations, as the FAD from the Colorbound Clobberers is considered too strong for a Bishop equivalent and the Cardinal from the same army too weak for a Queen equivalent, Ralph Betza considers the following to be the "official" all-star team. The rooks, knights, and queen are replaced by the following pieces:[11]
Charging rook (notation frlRrlbK), from the Nutty Knights army.
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Waffle (notation WA), from the Colorbound Clobberers army.
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Chancellor (notation RN), from the Remarkable Rookies army.
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There is another All-Around Allstars army by Ralph Betza. In this setup the restriction that an eligible piece must play in one of the four official armies is lifted and the Forward FIDEs and the Meticulous Mashers are also included. It has the following setup:[12]
Charging rook (notation frlRrlbK), from the Forward FIDEs and the Nutty Knights army.
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Fibnif (notation fbNF), from the Meticulous Mashers and the Nutty Knights army.
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Bishight (notation fBbN), from the Forward FIDEs army.
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Chancellor (notation RN), from the Remarkable Rookies army.
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Amazon Army (Ralph Betza)
In this army, the rooks and queen are replaced by the following pieces:[13]
Short rook (notation W4). Moves as rook, but not more than 4 spaces. This piece is also in the Remarkable Rookies army.
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Amazon (notation WWFFN). Moves as queen or knight.
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Cylindrical Cinders (Ralph Betza)
The rooks, knights, bishops, and queen are replaced by the following pieces:[14]
Cylindrical Waffle (notation oWoA). Moves as wazir or alfil on a cylinder. Can jump for all moves.
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Cylindrical Knight (notation oN). Moves as knight on a cylinder.
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Cylindrical Bishop (notation oFF). Moves as bishop on a cylinder. The position with an x can be reached in 2 different ways.
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Cylindrical Chancellor (notation oWWoN). Moves as rook or knight on a cylinder. Can jump for knight moves. The horizontal line can be reached from both directions.
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Fighting Fizzies (Peter Aronson)
In this army, the left rook, the right rook, knights, bishops, and queen are replaced by the following pieces:[15]
Left Single-Step Rhino (notation WF(mW-flF)(mF-flW)), on the left. Steps one square in any direction, then, if the first square is empty, may turn 45 degrees to the left, and move one more square.
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Right Single-Step Rhino (notation WF(mW-frF)(mF-frW)), on the right. Turns 45 degrees to the right instead.
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Gnohmon (notation vNvWnH). Moves as knight for its longest moves, as wazir vertically or slides 3 squares in orthogonal directions. Can jump for knight moves. The name Gnohmon is a reverence to Ralph Betza who used gnohmon as a pseudonym on chessvariants.com.
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Crabinal (notation fNbsNhhB). Moves as knight for the longest forward and shortest backward moves, or as bishop for half the distance to the edge of the board. Can jump for knight moves.
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Eagle-Scout (notation WzFF). Moves as wazir or as crooked bishop. Positions with an x can each be reached in 2 different ways.
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Avian Airforce (Ralph Betza)
In this army, the rooks, knights, bishops, and queen are replaced by the following pieces:[16]
Wader (notation WDD). Moves as wazir, or makes consecutive dabbaba moves (Dabbaba rider moves). Can jump between dabbaba moves.
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Darter (notation fNWbAA). Moves as wazir, as knight for its 2 most forward moves and can make consecutive alfil moves backwards. Can jump between alfil moves.
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Faalcon (notation FAA). Moves as ferz, or makes consecutive alfil moves. Can jump between alfil moves.
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Flying Kingfisher (notation WFAADD). Combines the moves of the Wader and the Faalcon.
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Spacious Cannoneers (Ralph Betza)
In this army, the rooks, knights, bishops, and queen are replaced by the following pieces:[17]
Mortar, on the left. Moves and captures as wazir or a rook that must stop one space before any piece. Can leap over the first piece in an orthogonal line and capture the next piece on that line (here the black rook can be captured).
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Howitzer, on the right. Moves and captures as wazir or a rook that must stop one space before any piece. Can leap over the first piece in an orthogonal line and land on any free space after it but before a second piece.
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Napoleon (notation vNW). Moves as wazir or as knight for its longest moves. Can jump for all moves.
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Carronade. Moves as bishop but must stop one space before any piece. Can leap over the first piece in a diagonal line and then continue as a normal bishop.
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Big Bertha. Combines the moves of the Howitzer and the Carronade.
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Spacious pieces must stop one square before any piece on the board. They can advance to the edge of the board when the wraparound square is empty, a spacious rook can move from e1 to e8 because at the end of the move the square e1 is empty. Spacious pieces can capture another piece when the square behind that piece is empty, or, when the piece to capture is placed on the edge of the board, the wraparound square is empty. Spacious pieces cannot wraparound the edges of the board, the wraparound squares are only examined in the case of a move towards the border.[18] In the Spacious Cannoneers army, several pieces combine a spacious piece with some kind of cannon piece.
Pizza Kings (John Lawson)
The rooks, knights, bishops, and queen are replaced by the following pieces:[19]
Pepperoni (notation sDfAvWF). Moves as ferz, horizontally as dabbaba, vertically as wazir or forward as alfil. Can jump for all moves.
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Mushroom (notation vNfsCbF). Moves forwards as knight for its longest moves, backwards as ferz or as camel for its shortest forward moves. Can jump for all moves.
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Sausage (notation sWFvNvH). Moves as ferz, horizontally as wazir, as knight for its longest moves or jumps 3 squares vertically. Can jump for all moves.
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Meatball (notation FWADfN.). Moves as king, alfil, dabbaba or as knight for its 2 longest forward moves. Can jump for all moves.
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Seeping Switchers (Jörg Knappen)
The rooks, knights, bishops, and queen are replaced by the following pieces:[20]
Panda or Slip Rook (notation (W-DD)). Moves as rook, but only to squares of color opposite to that on which it stands. Can jump over squares it cannot move to.
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Marquis (notation NW). Moves as knight or wazir. Can jump for knight moves.
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Unicorn (notation N(mW-FF)). Moves as knight, then may continue as bishop. Can jump for the knight moves, but longer moves require the corresponding wazir square to be empty. In this case, the unicorn may jump to g3 and g5, but is blocked from moving to h2 or h6 by the black pawn, which it cannot capture.
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Erl Queen or Erlkönigin or Slip Queen (notation (W-DD)(F-AA)). Moves as queen, but jumps over every other space along its way.
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Daring Dragons (H. G. Muller)
The rooks, knights, bishops, and queen are replaced by the following pieces:[21]
Bent Bozos (H. G. Muller)
The left and right rooks, left and right knights, left and right bishops, and queen are replaced by the following pieces: [22]
Right Griffon (notation FafrR). Rotates 45 degrees right instead.
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Right Aanca (notation WafrB). Rotates 45 degrees right instead.
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Fearful Fairies (Jörg Knappen)
The rooks, knights, bishops, and queen are replaced by the following pieces:[23]
Phoenix (notation WA). Moves as wazir or alfil. Can jump for all moves. Named waffle in the Colorbound Clobberers.
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Dullahan (notation FN). Moves as knight or ferz.
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Fearful (notation FA). Moves as one square diagonally or jump two squares diagonally. The name is a word play on Ferz-Alfil aka Ferfil.
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Banshee (notation BNN). Moves as Bishop or Nightrider, making consecutive knight moves in the same direction. It may jump over pieces using the knight moves, but all intermediate knight squares must be free.
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Silly Sliders (H. G. Muller)
The rooks, knights, bishops, and queen are replaced by the following pieces:[24]
Lame Duck (notation FyafW). Moves as rook or ferz, but may not move like a wazir.
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Diamond (notation FD). Moves as ferz or dabbaba. Can jump for dabbaba moves.
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Onyx (notation WyafF). Moves as bishop or wazir, but may not move like a ferz.
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Squire (notation NyafK). Moves as amazon, but may not move like a king. Can jump for knight moves.
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Hoppel-Poppel
Hoppel-Poppel is originally a popular chess variant from Germany played with equal armies. Its army fits perfectly into Chess with Different Armies and is therefore listed here. In this army the knights and bishops are replaced by the following pieces:[25]
Knibis (notation mNcB). Moves without capture as a knight, captures as a bishop.
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Biskni (notation mBcN). Moves without capture as bishop, captures as a knight.
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References
- ^ a b Pritchard, D. (1994). The Encyclopedia of Chess Variants. Games & Puzzles Publications. ISBN 0-9524142-0-1.
- ^ Pritchard, D. B. (2007). "Equal Armies". In Beasley, John (ed.). The Classified Encyclopedia of Chess Variants. John Beasley. pp. 186–87. ISBN 978-0-9555168-0-1.
- ^ Chess with different armies by Ralph Betza.
- ^ Single Comment Chess with Different Armies
- ^ Single Comment Chess with Different Armies
- ^ Jörg Knappen, 2012. Drunken Nights. On www.chessvariants.com, retrieved 2024-12-07
- ^ Single Comment Chess with Different Armies
- ^ Different Kings and Pawns? by Ralph Betza
- ^ The Forward FIDEs by Ralph Betza.
- ^ The Meticulous Mashers by Ralph Betza.
- ^ The All-Around Allstars by Ralph Betza.
- ^ The All-Around Allstars by Ralph Betza.
- ^ The Amazon Army by Ralph Betza.
- ^ The Cylindrical Cinders by Ralph Betza.
- ^ The Fighting Fizzies by Peter Aronson
- ^ Ideal Values and Practical Values (part 3): The Rider Problem by Ralph Betza
- ^ Ideal Values and Practical Values (part 5): Modified Jumpers by Ralph Betza
- ^ Spacious Pieces by Ralph Betza
- ^ The Pizza Kings by John Lawson.
- ^ The Seeping Switchers by Jörg Knappen.
- ^ "chessvariants.com -- Comment Listing". www.chessvariants.com. Retrieved 2023-02-16.
- ^ "chessvariants.com -- Comment Listing". www.chessvariants.com. Retrieved 2023-02-17.
- ^ "Fearful fairies". www.chessvariants.com. Retrieved 2024-11-24.
- ^ "chessvariants.com -- Comment Listing". www.chessvariants.com. Retrieved 2024-03-05.
- ^ "Hoppel-Poppel". www.chessvariants.com.