Capablanca chess
Encyclopedia
Capablanca chess is a chess variant
invented in the 1920s by former World Chess Champion José Raúl Capablanca
. It incorporates two new pieces and is played on a 10×8 board. Capablanca proposed the variant while World Champion, and not as a "sour grapes" rationalization after losing his title as some critics have asserted. He believed that chess
would be played out in a few decades and games between grandmasters would always end in draws
. The threat of "draw death" for chess was his main motivation for creating a more complex and richer version of the game.
The new pieces have properties that enrich the game. For example, the archbishop by itself can checkmate a lone king (king in a corner, archbishop placed diagonally with one square in between).
He subsequently revised the opening setup so that the archbishop was between the queen's knight and bishop, and the chancellor was between the king's knight and bishop. He also experimented with 10×10 board sizes, where the pawns could move up to three squares on the initial move.
In his book, The Adventure of Chess, Edward Lasker
writes (p. 39):
Lasker was one of the few supporters. Hungarian grandmaster
Géza Maróczy
also played some games with Capablanca (who got the better of him). One of the few rational critics, British champion William Winter
, thought that there were too many strong pieces, making the minor pieces less relevant.
The names for new pieces, Archbishop and Chancellor, were introduced by Capablanca himself. These names are still used in most modern variants of Capablanca Chess.
In 1617, Pietro Carrera
published a book Il Gioco degli Scacchi, which contained a description of a chess variant played on 8×10 board. He placed new pieces between a rook and a knight. Chancellor was on the king's side and archbishop on the queen's side. Carrera used names champion instead of chancellor and centaur instead of archbishop. The game was largely forgotten after the death of the inventor.
In 1874, Henry Bird proposed a chess variant similar to Carrera's variant. The only significant difference was the opening setup. The chancellor was placed between the queen's bishop and queen and the archbishop was placed between the king's bishop and king. Bird used names guard instead of chancellor and equerry instead of archbishop.
It is noteworthy that Embassy Chess
uses a starting position identical to Grand Chess
adapted to a 10×8 board.
Another interesting recent development is Capablanca Random Chess
, invented in 2004 by Reinhard Scharnagl. This game combines ideas of Fischer Random Chess
and Capablanca Chess. It also applies the sound principle which demands that in the starting position, all pawns are protected by at least one piece.
is a popular chess variant
invented by Dutch game designer Christian Freeling
in 1984. It uses Capablanca Chess pieces upon a larger, 10×10 board.
In 2007 Grandmaster Yasser Seirawan devised a variant (called Seirawan chess
), which adds the two pieces to the standard game in a different manner. The player, after moving a piece (for example, a bishop) from the first rank, may immediately place either of the two pieces on the bishop's square. If the player moves all his eight officers without placing the Hawk or the Elephant (Seirawan's names for the Archbishop and the Chancellor, respectively), he forfeits his right to do so.
Capablanca chess has inspired many chess variants, including grand chess
and omega chess
.
Chess variant
A chess variant is a game related to, derived from or inspired by chess. The difference from chess might include one or more of the following:...
invented in the 1920s by former World Chess Champion José Raúl Capablanca
José Raúl Capablanca
José Raúl Capablanca y Graupera was a Cuban chess player who was world chess champion from 1921 to 1927. One of the greatest players of all time, he was renowned for his exceptional endgame skill and speed of play...
. It incorporates two new pieces and is played on a 10×8 board. Capablanca proposed the variant while World Champion, and not as a "sour grapes" rationalization after losing his title as some critics have asserted. He believed that chess
Chess
Chess is a two-player board game played on a chessboard, a square-checkered board with 64 squares arranged in an eight-by-eight grid. It is one of the world's most popular games, played by millions of people worldwide at home, in clubs, online, by correspondence, and in tournaments.Each player...
would be played out in a few decades and games between grandmasters would always end in draws
Draw (chess)
In chess, a draw is when a game ends in a tie. It is one of the possible outcomes of a game, along with a win for White and a win for Black . Usually, in tournaments a draw is worth a half point to each player, while a win is worth one point to the victor and none to the loser.For the most part,...
. The threat of "draw death" for chess was his main motivation for creating a more complex and richer version of the game.
- The chancellor
Fairy chess pieceA fairy chess piece or unorthodox chess piece is a piece analogous to a chess piece. It is not used in conventional chess, but is used in certain chess variants and some chess problems...
combines powers of a rookRook (chess)A rook is a piece in the strategy board game of chess. Formerly the piece was called the castle, tower, marquess, rector, and comes...
and a knightKnight (chess)The knight is a piece in the game of chess, representing a knight . It is normally represented by a horse's head and neck. Each player starts with two knights, which begin on the row closest to the player, one square from the corner...
. - The archbishop
Fairy chess pieceA fairy chess piece or unorthodox chess piece is a piece analogous to a chess piece. It is not used in conventional chess, but is used in certain chess variants and some chess problems...
combines powers of a bishopBishop (chess)A bishop is a piece in the board game of chess. Each player begins the game with two bishops. One starts between the king's knight and the king, the other between the queen's knight and the queen...
and a knight.
The new pieces have properties that enrich the game. For example, the archbishop by itself can checkmate a lone king (king in a corner, archbishop placed diagonally with one square in between).
Setup of the pieces
Capablanca proposed two opening setups for Capablanca Chess. In one opening setup, he proposed that the archbishop be placed between the bishop and the queen and that the chancellor be placed between the king and the king's bishop. This setup has the flaw that it leaves the pawn in front of the king's bishop undefended, allowing white to threaten mate on the first move.He subsequently revised the opening setup so that the archbishop was between the queen's knight and bishop, and the chancellor was between the king's knight and bishop. He also experimented with 10×10 board sizes, where the pawns could move up to three squares on the initial move.
In his book, The Adventure of Chess, Edward Lasker
Edward Lasker
Edward Lasker was a leading German-American chess and Go player. He was awarded the title of International Master of chess by FIDE. Lasker was an engineer by profession, and an author.-Background:...
writes (p. 39):
...I played many test games with Capablanca, and they rarely lasted more than twenty or twenty-five moves. We tried boards of 10×10 squares and 10×8 squares, and we concluded that the latter was preferable because hand-to-hand fights start earlier on it.
Lasker was one of the few supporters. Hungarian grandmaster
International Grandmaster
The title Grandmaster is awarded to strong chess players by the world chess organization FIDE. Apart from World Champion, Grandmaster is the highest title a chess player can attain....
Géza Maróczy
Géza Maróczy
Géza Maróczy was a leading Hungarian chess Grandmaster, one of the best players in the world in his time. He was also a practicing engineer.-Early career:...
also played some games with Capablanca (who got the better of him). One of the few rational critics, British champion William Winter
William Winter (chess player)
William Winter was a British chess player. He won the British Open Chess Championship in 1934 and the British Chess Championship in 1935 and 1936. An acolyte of Siegbert Tarrasch, his sound, strategic play enabled him to defeat a number of the world's top players, including David Bronstein, Aron...
, thought that there were too many strong pieces, making the minor pieces less relevant.
The names for new pieces, Archbishop and Chancellor, were introduced by Capablanca himself. These names are still used in most modern variants of Capablanca Chess.
Variants that predate Capablanca Chess
Capablanca was not the first person to add the Chancellor and the Archbishop to the normal Chess set, though he is the most famous. Other attempts mostly differ only by the arrangement of pieces and the castling rules.In 1617, Pietro Carrera
Pietro Carrera
Pietro Carrera, chess player, historian, priest and author, born in Sicily, in Militello in Val di Catania , located in the Valley of Noto; here he grew up in the old colony of San Vito. He was born on July 12, 1573, he was the son of Donna Antonia Severino and Mariano Carrera, a traditional...
published a book Il Gioco degli Scacchi, which contained a description of a chess variant played on 8×10 board. He placed new pieces between a rook and a knight. Chancellor was on the king's side and archbishop on the queen's side. Carrera used names champion instead of chancellor and centaur instead of archbishop. The game was largely forgotten after the death of the inventor.
In 1874, Henry Bird proposed a chess variant similar to Carrera's variant. The only significant difference was the opening setup. The chancellor was placed between the queen's bishop and queen and the archbishop was placed between the king's bishop and king. Bird used names guard instead of chancellor and equerry instead of archbishop.
Variants that postdate Capablanca Chess
Capablanca Chess has inspired a number of chess variants;- Aberg's variation (2003) by Hans Aberg.
- Grotesque Chess (2004) by Fergus Duniho.
- Univers Chess (2006) by Fergus Duniho.
- Ladorean Chess (2005) by Bernhard U. Hermes.
- Grand ChessGrand chessGrand chess is a popular large-board chess variant invented by Dutch games designer Christian Freeling in 1984. It is played on a 10×10 board, with each side having two additional pawns and two new pieces: the marshall and the cardinal....
(1984) by Christian Freeling. - Embassy ChessEmbassy ChessEmbassy chess is a chess variant created in 2005 by Kevin Hill. It borrows the opening setup from Grand chess by Christian Freeling and adapts it to the 10x8 board....
(2005) by Kevin Hill. - Gothic ChessGothic chessGothic Chess is a chess variant derived from Capablanca Chess by Ed Trice. It was patented in 2002, but the patent expired in 2006.It is played on the same 10×8 board and additional pieces as in Capablanca Chess...
(2002) by Ed Trice. - Schoolbook Chess (2006) by Sam Trenholme.
- Paulovich's variation (2004) by David Paulovich.
- Modern Capablanca Random Chess (2008) by José Carrillo.
It is noteworthy that Embassy Chess
Embassy Chess
Embassy chess is a chess variant created in 2005 by Kevin Hill. It borrows the opening setup from Grand chess by Christian Freeling and adapts it to the 10x8 board....
uses a starting position identical to Grand Chess
Grand chess
Grand chess is a popular large-board chess variant invented by Dutch games designer Christian Freeling in 1984. It is played on a 10×10 board, with each side having two additional pawns and two new pieces: the marshall and the cardinal....
adapted to a 10×8 board.
Another interesting recent development is Capablanca Random Chess
Capablanca random chess
Capablanca Random Chess is a chess variant invented by Reinhard Scharnagl in 2004. It combines the piece set and 10x8 board from Capablanca Chess with the permutation idea of Fischer Random Chess...
, invented in 2004 by Reinhard Scharnagl. This game combines ideas of Fischer Random Chess
Chess960
Chess960 is a chess variant invented and advocated by former World Chess Champion Bobby Fischer, originally announced on June 19, 1996 in Buenos Aires, Argentina. It employs the same board and pieces as standard chess, but the starting position of the pieces is randomized along the players' home...
and Capablanca Chess. It also applies the sound principle which demands that in the starting position, all pawns are protected by at least one piece.
Variants which use a different board
There are also variants of Capablanca Chess that do not use the standard 10×8 board. Grand chessGrand chess
Grand chess is a popular large-board chess variant invented by Dutch games designer Christian Freeling in 1984. It is played on a 10×10 board, with each side having two additional pawns and two new pieces: the marshall and the cardinal....
is a popular chess variant
Chess variant
A chess variant is a game related to, derived from or inspired by chess. The difference from chess might include one or more of the following:...
invented by Dutch game designer Christian Freeling
Christian Freeling
Christian Freeling is a Dutch game designer and inventor of various chess variants, notably Grand chess, invented in 1984.Other game inventions by Freeling include:...
in 1984. It uses Capablanca Chess pieces upon a larger, 10×10 board.
In 2007 Grandmaster Yasser Seirawan devised a variant (called Seirawan chess
Seirawan chess
Seirawan chess is a chess variant invented by grandmaster Yasser Seirawan in 2007. It is played on the standard 8x8 board and uses two new pieces, the hawk and the elephant . Yasser Seirawan has given simultaneous exhibitions for the game...
), which adds the two pieces to the standard game in a different manner. The player, after moving a piece (for example, a bishop) from the first rank, may immediately place either of the two pieces on the bishop's square. If the player moves all his eight officers without placing the Hawk or the Elephant (Seirawan's names for the Archbishop and the Chancellor, respectively), he forfeits his right to do so.
Capablanca chess has inspired many chess variants, including grand chess
Grand chess
Grand chess is a popular large-board chess variant invented by Dutch games designer Christian Freeling in 1984. It is played on a 10×10 board, with each side having two additional pawns and two new pieces: the marshall and the cardinal....
and omega chess
Omega Chess
Omega Chess is a commercial chess variant designed by Daniel MacDonald in Toronto. The game is played on a 10x10 board with an extra square in each of the extreme corners where the wizards are placed at the start of the game...
.
See also
- ChessVChessVChessV is a free computer program designed to play a large number of chess variants.ChessV is an open-source, universal chess variant program with a graphical user-interface, sophisticated AI, support for opening books and other features of traditional chess programs...
- a program (licensed under the GPLGNU General Public LicenseThe GNU General Public License is the most widely used free software license, originally written by Richard Stallman for the GNU Project....
) which plays Capablanca Chess and all of the other proposed 10×8 setups, as well as several other chess variants against the computer. - SMIRFSMIRFThe name SMIRF is an acronym for "Strategiespielprogramm mit intelligent rückkoppelnden Funktionen" . It designates an appropriate innovative variant of an adaptive recursive feedback implementation. The procedure cuts the to be evaluated search tree effectively both in the depth and in the width...
- a program which plays all 12,118 Capablanca Random ChessCapablanca random chessCapablanca Random Chess is a chess variant invented by Reinhard Scharnagl in 2004. It combines the piece set and 10x8 board from Capablanca Chess with the permutation idea of Fischer Random Chess...
variants except Gothic ChessGothic chessGothic Chess is a chess variant derived from Capablanca Chess by Ed Trice. It was patented in 2002, but the patent expired in 2006.It is played on the same 10×8 board and additional pieces as in Capablanca Chess...
.
External links
- "Capablanca's Chess" by Hans Bodlaender, The Chess Variant Pages
- Capablanca Chess | material values of pieces
- Play.Chessvariants.org the Capablanca Chess PBM Game Courier
- Pathguy.com a simple Capablanca Chess program by Ed Friedlander