Extinction chess

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Extinction chess is a chess variant invented by ,[a] editor of Games magazine, in 1985.[1][2] Instead of checkmate as the winning condition, the object of the game is the elimination of all of a particular kind of piece of the opponent. In other words, the objective is any of the following:

  • capture all the opponent's kings;
  • capture all the opponent's queens;
  • capture all the opponent's rooks;
  • capture all the opponent's bishops;
  • capture all the opponent's knights;
  • eliminate all of the opponent's pawns, by capturing or promoting (a promoted pawn is considered no longer a pawn; by the same token, if a player already has a queen, and promotes a pawn to another queen, then both queens would need to be captured to make them extinct).

Since the king is not a special piece in this game, it is legal to promote a pawn to a king. It is also legal to castle when in check, or to castle through check. The other rules of castling are the same: the king and the rook must not have previously moved, and there must be no pieces in between. Similarly, rooks, bishops, and queens may freely cross attacked squares even if they are the last of their kind.

It is possible that both sides suffer an extinction on the same move, if pawn promotion is involved. For example, White might have a last pawn on b7, and Black a last bishop on c8; then if White plays bxc8=Q, it causes the extinction of both the White pawns and the Black bishops. In this case White is ruled to have won, as although both sides have fulfilled their winning conditions, it was a move by White that brought this situation about; and also because this move is thought of as having two parts (the bishop is removed from the board before the pawn is promoted).[3]

Notes[]

  1. ^ Using pseudonym Paddy Smith.

References[]

  1. ^ Pritchard (2007), p. 84.
  2. ^ Pritchard (1994), pp. 105–06.
  3. ^ http://www.chessvariants.org/index/listcomments.php?order=DESC&itemid=Extinctionchess

Bibliography

  • Schmittberger, R. Wayne (1992). "Extinction Chess". New Rules for Classic Games. Wiley. pp. 19-20. ISBN 978-0471536215.
  • Pritchard, D. B. (1994). The Encyclopedia of Chess Variants. Games & Puzzles Publications. ISBN 0-9524142-0-1.
  • Pritchard, D. B. (2000). "§1 Extinction Chess". Popular Chess Variants. B.T. Batsford Ltd. pp. 9–13. ISBN 0-7134-8578-7.
  • Pritchard, D. B. (2007), Beasley, John (ed.), The Classified Encyclopedia of Chess Variants, John Beasley, ISBN 978-0-9555168-0-1

External links[]

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