[net.chess] Siamese Chess

rccall@dartvax.UUCP (R. Christian Call) (04/29/84)

oddjob!matt mentioned in his article that it was often hard to
keep track of captured pieces which had been promoted pawns.
The way I've always played Siamese, a promoted pawn turns
back into a pawn as soon as it is captured after being
promoted.  It's a nice way of playing because you don't
have to worry about whether something's really a pawn or
a piece, and because it introduces some interesting
complications (e.g. it's OK to sac a Queen if it'll turn
back into a pawn once it falls into the enemies' hands).

kovalsky@trwspp.UUCP (05/01/84)

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Siamese/Bughouse Chess seems to be played at most all high school
chess clubs, including my former HS. The way we played was to ALLOW
pawns on the first and the eighth ranks. It makes for much more exciting
(and quicker) games. It adds more offense to attacks(e.g., if a player
castles queenside then a pawn can be placed on R1 immediately as a queen),
but also more defense (e.g. putting a pawn on KN1 to defend the ever
vulnerable KB2 square). The way we played all promoted pieces when captured
went back as pawns. Ah, those were the good old days....

One word of warning to those that play alot of Siamese and also play
Tournament Chess: It can mess up your regular chess! It can be kind of
embarrasing to sack a piece in a tournament game and then turn to the person 
playing next to you and saying: "A knight and a pawn mate!". Only then do 
you realize that you're not getting any pieces to fuel your attack.

	Bruce Kovalsky <!sdcrdcf!trwrb!trwspp!kovalsky>