On: Battle Chess

[jtolmar]

I came up with a great chess variant ages ago, and finally got around to making a computer version of it last week.

Implied Chess:

Rule 1: Chess

Rule 2: You can't capture normally

Rule 3: Any piece threatened by two enemy pieces is captured (except kings)

Rule 4: The player who just moved captures first

Rule 5: No En Passant (it just doesn't make sense)

Rule 6: Check and checkmate are normal

http://noisyowl.com/chess/

[xashor → jtolmar]

That's quite fun (especially chain-capturing!), can't beat Alpha Beta 3 yet. Any reasons for Rule 6?

[jtolmar → xashor]

Thanks!

Check and checkmate are normal because it's just way too hard to checkmate the king with dual threats.

I can't beat Alpha Beta 3 yet either. If anyone starts beating 4 I'll put some effort into optimizing the search so it can go deeper. Going 10 ply deep is pretty standard for a chess engine, so it's pretty embarrassing for humanity that nobody is beating the 3-ply setting. I think this game actually favors computers over humans more than regular chess does.