Chess on a Really Big Board

Game description

Chess on a Really Big Board was created as an outgrowth of Betza's ideas on three-dimensional chess, after he noted that an 8×8×8 board for 3D chess would have 512 spaces, more than any large version of chess that had previously been invented; he then considered two-dimensional very large (or, in his word, "huge") chess games, mainly on the 16×16 board because such a board requires no non-standard equipment to construct, and while much larger than the 8×8 board, it was not so big as to make an unplayable game. This idea eventually came full circle in the development of the 16×16×16 three-dimensional version of Chess on a Really Big Board, which he called "impossibly large".

The standard rules of chess apply, except for the following cases:

The reason for Betza's inclusion of the rose in his initial setup was that it was a piece especially suited for a large board: it cannot display its full power on boards smaller than 13×13. Furthermore, its already large move still cannot reach all the way across the board, contributing to the large feeling of the game even further than the ability of the riders to attack from a large distance away.

Gameplay

Betza described his choice of pieces as "a very basic and logical selection of the fundamental geometrical moves, except for my idiosyncratic insistence on including the Rose in the lineup of pieces. These are largely the basic units of Chess, and anybody who designs a [16×16] game with 32 pieces is bound to come up with something reasonably similar, at least if they want it to be like Chess but a bit less tactical." In fact, his original plan was to include FD along with the complementary WA (the phoenix from chu shogi), but this leaves the c- and n-pawns undefended in the initial position. His final assessment was that the game was "rather chesslike".

Betza divided the pieces into three classes: seven long-range pieces (the rooks, bishops, queen, archbishop, and chancellor), two mid-range pieces (the rose and superknight), and six short-range pieces (the knights, FD's, and WFA's). He opined that the short-range pieces, though the weakest, were crucial as they take time to get into the action, but are very important for opening up specific lines for attacks.

Sample opening phase of a game

The following sample game fragment was constructed by Betza.

The 16×16 analogue to the Wayward Queen Attack (in orthodox chess, 1.e4 e5 2.Qh5). On such a large board, this opening move becomes much sounder, as it is more difficult to attack the queen, and from this position it bears down onto the centre from a long distance.

Black defends his i-pawn; White attacks it again (her j-pawn being defended by the chancellor on j1); Black defends it again, moving his rose from f16 via e14 and f12 to h11, where it defends the pawn on i9. Trading pawns would be disadvantageous and lead to the loss of a tempo by the initiator, but at some point White's chancellor must be developed.

Currently, White has no immediate threats. Attacks on Black's h-pawn with Bb4 (moving the d-pawn away first), or his rose with Bo4 (moving the m-pawn away first) are easy to counter. Hence she decides to bring a short-range piece to attack, though this will take several turns.

Attacking White's queen.

Threatening to lift the king's rook to the h-file to contest the centre.

Continuing to attack White's queen. This region could also be used as an advanced base: the n11 square can easily be defended by the rose or the m-pawn, and a natural follow-up would be 8...Qn10.

The White queen retreats and attacks the Black i-pawn again, but Black defends the pawn with the archbishop while attacking the queen again. The archbishop itself, though attacked by White's superknight, is protected by Black's rose.

If 9.Qk7, then 9...Al9 may win a pawn.

Threatening 10...Al6.

Sample game

The following is the only complete game of Chess on a Really Big Board played on The Chess Variant Pages, and is not intended as a representative example of good play.

White: John Davis   Black: Georg Spengler
Game Courier 2015

This move is illegal: the Black l-pawn has already moved, and so it can now only move one square forward at a time. However, this was not noticed by either player, and hence the move stood.

Endgame

The standard basic checkmates (queen, rook, two bishops, or bishop and knight) can all be forced on the 16×16 board, but take a longer time to accomplish. For example, while 33 moves suffice from any winnable position to mate with bishop and knight on an 8×8 board, it can take up to 93 moves on a 16×16 board. For example, if White has a king on a1, a knight on b1, and a bishop on c1, while Black has only a king on c2, White can force mate in 92:

A single archbishop, chancellor, or WFA can also force checkmate. Two FDs on different colours can force checkmate without their king's help.

Golden Age Chess on a Really Big Board

Betza also created a second 16×16 variant, which he termed Golden Age Chess on a Really Big Board. He wrote: "This game is designed to create an open position in which development, initiative, and attack are all-important, the positions are too complex to calculate so you must play by intuition, and you never count Pawns -- in other words, a return to the Golden Age!" However, he appears to have considered Chess on a Really Big Board to be the primary 16×16 game, that could be translated to 3D to make 16×16×16 chess.

The inverted knight in the diagram is the rose from Chess on a Really Big Board, and the superknight and archbishop remain the same. The other pieces are as follows:

The shortest possible checkmate is:

The shortest game ending in quadruple check and mate is:

Nine Board Chess

Betza also proposed a 24×24 version of Chess on a Really Big Board, although he did not fully design it. His description of the game was "Push 9 boards together in a [3×3] square, symmetrically replicate all the unique pieces from the Four Board Chess lineup, add a W beside the K, two Fs flanking the K [and] W, and you have a game." The W and F are here the wazir and ferz. This description is however not unique: the diagram shown to the right is one possible interpretation, but others are also consistent with his description. The addition of such weak pieces was intended to balance the duplication of the more powerful pieces.

Four Board Shatranj

Betza also suggested a version with even fewer tactics that would eliminate many of the riders, replacing bishops with alfils and queens with ferzes, turning archbishops into knight-alfil compounds, and turning chancellors into either rook-alfil or rook-ferz compounds.

Rule changes

Betza remarked that the rules of most chess variants, such as cylindrical chess or Avalanche chess, could be applied to Chess on a Really Big Board; nonetheless, he considered applying the rules of cylindrical chess to the 16×16 board "silly" because it made distances feel even larger, recommending Avalanche chess instead as it shortens the game. Betza also thought favourably of applying the rules of Momentum Chess to the 16×16 board. Another possibility Betza mentioned is the rules of Viennese Kriegspiel, where the middle of the board (the line between the 8th and 9th ranks) is blocked by a screen and players can move their pieces freely up to their first six ranks. Once both players are satisfied with their arrangement (this can be enforced with a timer), the screen is removed and normal play resumes. It would also be possible to play without the screen, which Betza called "Sighted Viennese Kriegspiel".

A further possibility Betza entertained was a 3D version of Chess on a Really Big Board on a 16×16×16 board, which brought its inspiration full circle. On each level, the 2D setup would be repeated, and the pieces' moves would be translated into three dimensions just as in his idea of 8×8×8 3D chess. Nevertheless, he commented on it: "What an awful idea. Each player has 256 Pawns and 256 pieces. The average length of a game is likely to be more [than] 2000 moves."

Different starting positions

Betza also considered starting positions with 16 (one chess set) or 64 (four sets) pieces instead of 32 (two sets), but eventually rejected them. They are as follows:

Unrealised suggestions

Betza also suggested "Four Board Great Chess", which would have more pieces than the rose that could not make their full moves on smaller boards, and having pawns on the third rank and about 24 pieces in the two rows behind them; and similarly, "Four Board Great Shatranj", where the pieces would be weakened further. Another suggestion of his was Four Board Chess with different armies, suggesting that one player could use knights and the other could use fibnifs (fbNF; moves forward or backward as knight, or as ferz in all directions), though noting that creating completely new armies was not possible in 1996 as the values of long-range pieces on 16×16 boards were not yet known to much precision. However, none were developed beyond ideas.

A further variant Betza considered is "Sixty-Four Board Chess", which would be played on a 64×64 board with 4096 squares (the same as 16×16×16 chess). Betza's comment was:

A chessboard of chessboards! You must use very small chessboards and sets, and you must have very long arms. You must also have a long time to play! I can enjoy this game more by just thinking about it than I could by actually trying to play it...

Similarly, he considered a 64×64×64 3D variant, which he put forward as a possible world record for the largest chess variant (having 262144 cubes), although he did not completely specify the rules, beyond stating that the standard opening setup for orthodox chess would simply be repeated to fill the 64×64 boards.

No special equipment required, except for a high ceiling and a very strong floor in the room where you do this.

I suppose you might need very long arms to move the pieces, and a telescope to see the enemy King, it's so far away.