richard@sequent.UUCP (04/17/84)
I learned this one a few years ago, anyone recognize it? Monster chess is a bizarre mutation of chess that strongly illustrates the principles of Guerrilla warfare, namely, speed and sacrifice. One player receives the full complement of pieces, and plays by the normal rules. The other player (the Monster) receives only a King and four pawns. The four are ordinarily placed in the center four positions of the Monster's second rank. The Monster's pieces move in the same manner, but twice as fast. For every move the ordinary player gets, the Monster moves twice. The only other exception is the Monster's king is allowed to move into check on the first of his moves, but must be out of check after the second. One last thing - checkmate in Monster chess is the same as normal chess: The ordinary king must be in unavoidable jeopardy, while the Monster king is not. For a new "monster" the games seems quite clumsy, and it takes a while to learn the proper use of the new abilities. But to play against an experienced monster is quite a challenge - it takes *a lot* of effort to survive your first dozen of so moves. This games does show some of the basic concepts of guerrilla warfare, but a better version could be played if somehow the Monster's pieces were invisible until they were next to (or on top of) the ordinary pieces. The ability of guerrillas to move undetected around a battlefield and to rapidly disappear after striking is one of the primary advantages of that style of warfare. Try it with an friend, then with some unsuspecting enemies. Oh, yes: This game plays best when timed: the pressure on the players to react quickly makes it much more dramatic. ___________________________________________________________________________ The preceding should not to be construed as the statement or opinion of the employers or associates of the author. It is solely the belief... from the confused and bleeding fingertips of ...!sequent!richard
eric@whuxle.UUCP (04/20/84)
#R:sequent:-45500:whuxle:25600002:000:160 whuxle!eric Apr 19 18:49:00 1984 We play monster chess at my school's chess club. With just two pawns, the king only player can almost always win.... just how many games have you played???
robison@eosp1.UUCP (Tobias D. Robison) (04/20/84)
References: I play monster chess with four pawns (center columns). With best play, the game is a win for the player with a full set of pieces. The winning strategy is to advance both rook pawns while preventing the monster player from getting a quick checkmate (or a quick capture of one rookpawn). One pawn must queen. With an extra queen, the regular player easily forces checkmate. I believe my rules are identical, in effect to Richard Wood's, but I would describe the checkmate rule more simply -- the player who first captures the opponent's king wins. - Toby Robison (not Robinson!) allegra!eosp1!robison decvax!ittvax!eosp1!robison princeton!eosp1!robison
rccall@dartvax.UUCP (R. Christian Call) (04/22/84)
The way I learned it, the "Monster" always plays white, and always gets THREE (3) pawns -- KBP, KP, and QP. With proper play, however, Black can win fairly easily (even without an extra queen).