New Chess Variant – Medieval Chess: The Bastard and the Consort!

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MedievalChess7949
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Full name: Pedro Ribeiro

New Chess Variant – Medieval Chess: The Bastard and the Consort!

Post by MedievalChess7949 »

Hello, chess enthusiasts!

I have been developing a new chess variant inspired by medieval times, and I’d love to hear what you think! This variant introduces two new pieces, bringing fresh dynamics to the game while preserving the core mechanics of classical chess.

🛡️ Key Features:
♟️ New piece mechanics that enhance strategic possibilities
♟️ A special rule for introducing the new pieces into play
♟️ A different promotion system, adding another layer of depth

The goal was to create something balanced, engaging, and fun, where players can explore new tactical and positional ideas without deviating too much from the essence of chess.

I’ve put together a video demonstration and detailed rules, and I’d love to hear the community’s feedback!

📽️ Video Explanation:

📖 Full Rules and Details: https://www.notion.so/Medieval-Chess-Va ... 5832?pvs=4

Thx so much!
jefk
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Re: New Chess Variant – Medieval Chess: The Bastard and the Consort!

Post by jefk »

nice video, but i wonder if you know about existing known chess:

https://thomasguild.blogspot.com/2014/0 ... iants.html
https://historicalgames.neocities.org/Medieval/chess
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Courier_chess

Then i also wonder how it relates to other variants;
So here's some info about -much more- chess variants:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_chess_variants
https://www.chessvariants.com/
https://www.zillions-of-games.com/variants.html

good luck (or fun) anyway
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hgm
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Re: New Chess Variant – Medieval Chess: The Bastard and the Consort!

Post by hgm »

At chess.com my long reply to this was irrecoverably discarded, presumably because it contained the word 'bastard'! :twisted:

The problem I noticed is that the extra pieces initially are confined to their own half, making them good for defense, and useless for attack. This makes life almost impossible for an attacker. Not only only does he have to face a numeric majority of defenders, but trading those away in what otherwise would have been equal trades might now be losing trades. Because the recapture is done by Bastard or Consort, promoting those to obviously more valuable pieces.

Giving such a large advantage to a defender is likely to make the game very drawish; attacking is more like suicide, so both players will simply wait passively for the 50-move rule to kick in.

The rule for introducing the new pieces seems needlessly complex. It would be better to introduce them by Seirawan- or Musketeer-Chess-like gating. E.g. make a Bastard appear on e1/e8 whenever the King moves away from there, and a Consort on d1/d8 whenever the Queen moves. That also fits nicely with the theme. (A King away from home produces bastards...)

I designed a variant (Onslaught) that does just the opposit: slow pieces like Knights cannot capture when standing on their own board half, making them pretty useless as defenders, and thus giving the advantage to the attacker. That makes the game a 'race to mate', which makes it feasible to use larger boards with more pieces without the game boringly dragging on forever.
MedievalChess7949
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Joined: Sat Feb 01, 2025 8:41 pm
Full name: Pedro Ribeiro

Re: New Chess Variant – Medieval Chess: The Bastard and the Consort!

Post by MedievalChess7949 »

Hey, thanks for the feedback.

I am thinking in automatic promotion in the move 22, if the pieces have not been promoted previously. What you think?
Last edited by MedievalChess7949 on Tue Feb 04, 2025 2:31 am, edited 1 time in total.
MedievalChess7949
Posts: 4
Joined: Sat Feb 01, 2025 8:41 pm
Full name: Pedro Ribeiro

Re: New Chess Variant – Medieval Chess: The Bastard and the Consort!

Post by MedievalChess7949 »

Hey, thanks for checking out the video! I appreciate the links—some of these I’ve seen before, but others are new to me, so I’ll definitely take a look. Regards,

jefk wrote: Sun Feb 02, 2025 10:50 am nice video, but i wonder if you know about existing known chess:

https://thomasguild.blogspot.com/2014/0 ... iants.html
https://historicalgames.neocities.org/Medieval/chess
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Courier_chess

Then i also wonder how it relates to other variants;
So here's some info about -much more- chess variants:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_chess_variants
https://www.chessvariants.com/
https://www.zillions-of-games.com/variants.html

good luck (or fun) anyway
User avatar
hgm
Posts: 28274
Joined: Fri Mar 10, 2006 10:06 am
Location: Amsterdam
Full name: H G Muller

Re: New Chess Variant – Medieval Chess: The Bastard and the Consort!

Post by hgm »

MedievalChess7949 wrote: Tue Feb 04, 2025 2:08 am Hey, thanks for the feedback.

I am thinking in automatic promotion in the move 22, if the pieces have not been promoted previously. What you think?
This might just be a matter of personal taste, but I dislike rules that make something happen on a specific move number. It sounds unnatural. Sometimes a game develops quickly, sometimes slowly, so the move number doesn't really mean anything. Much better to trigger things by events happening in the game.

I also don't see the point of rules that artificially delay the introduction of the new pieces. What is the point of that, how does a forced initial absence of the pieces make the game better? Introducing pieces during the game seems like patchwork anyway; ideally all pieces are present from the beginning. It is just an inelegant fix for having too many pieces for too small a board.

Yet many methods for this have already been tried and considered acceptable. One of the best known is gating as in Seirawan Chess, where you can optionally make a piece that you start with 'in hand' on a square evacuated by a backrank piece that moves for the first time (in the same turn). In Musketeer Chess something similar happens, except that you have to decide in advance 'from under' which piece the introduced piece will appear. One usually indicates that by placing the piece to introduce directly behind the square where it will appear. (I.e. on 'rank 0' or 'rank 9'. This requires a special prelude to the game before people can start moving, which is another thing I dislike.)

There are also variants where the extra pieces start in hand, and you can drop them on any empty square on your back rank as a turn. And there is a method where the extra pieces start on extra squares beyond the edge of the normal board (but so close that with their regular move they can enter the board). As soon as such an extra square is evacuated, it simply disappears, and moves to it are no longer possible.

What can be said of all these methods is that at least they are very straightforward.
MedievalChess7949
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Joined: Sat Feb 01, 2025 8:41 pm
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Re: New Chess Variant – Medieval Chess: The Bastard and the Consort!

Post by MedievalChess7949 »

Thanks for your thoughts! Maybe you are right....