Das zweite Zvolen's

Ser-h = = 7

Zvolen's Chess

Sol. 1. f6 2. Kf7 3. Ke6 4. Kf5 (4. Kf6? would activate wPe5, and would be therefore a self-check) 5. Kg5 6. Kh5 7. g5, e6 = =

Zvolen's Chess

h#7

Zvolen's Chess*

Sol. 1. d5 2. dxc4 3. dxb3 4. b2 5. bxa1=S 6. Sb3 7. Sxc5, Bxc5#

*Rules: "Units guarded by a friendly unit are paralysed and lose all their powers, including the power of paralysing further friendly units (note the difference from Madrasi). Kings neither paralyse nor are paralysed. Reciprocal or cyclic guards do not paralyse unless one of the units is also paralysed from outside the cycle".

Beirut Chess

#3

Beirut Chess*

Sol. 1. g4, Kh7 (1... Kg5, 2. g4-boom), 2. g5, Kh8 3. Kf8, Kh7, 4. g6-boom

* [Ok, it's a derogatory and obsolete (1992) denomination, because, unfortunately, the scene of many barbarous terrorisms, nowadays, is planet Earth, but I chose to keep it: the plays are stronger than irrational violence (irrationality is man's original sin). The play must go on].

Beirut Chess follows all the rules and conventions of standard chess, with one difference: Before the game begins, each player secretly attaches a red dot to the bottom of one of his pieces (but not the king). This piece is called a bomb carrier. On any turn, instead of moving, a player may say "Boom!" and overturn his bomb carrier. All pieces of either color on squares adjacent to the bomb carrier are removed from the game, as well as the bomb carrier itself.

There are two ways to win:

• Checkmate the opponent.
• Blow up the enemy king.

A captured piece may not be inspected to see whether or not it was a bomb carrier.

Atomic Bomb

Ser-h#4

Atomic Bomb (n=1)*

Sol. 1. Qxf2 2. b2 3. b1=AB 4. ABg3 (-Kh4, -Qf2; pb5 = K), Kc6 #

"ATOMIC BOMB. Invented by Nassouh bey Taher, Transjordan, April 1949; see also article by C. H. O'D. Alexander in the Sunday Times, 29th May, 1949. A pawn can promote to an Atomic Bomb, then [in the next move, I think] leap to any desired square, where it destroys everything [white and black men, in my opinion] around it in an area of (n) steps. It can only be played once. If it destroys the opponent's King [or its own, I suppose], the piece of next highest rank then becomes King [with that piece's, and not King's, powers, I would guess] (Anthony Dickins, A Guide to Fairy Chess, Dover Publication, Inc., New York 1969, Appendix E, p. 49).

Atlantosaurus Rex

#3

Atlantosaurus* e4

Sol. 1. f4, Axe3 2. Be1, Axf4 3. Bd2#

* The Atlantosaurus is a capturing piece, i.e. a piece which can move, but only in order to capture.

A Cylindrical Quadruplet

C. R. Flood

(Anthony Dickins, A Guide to Fairy Chess, Dover Publication, Inc., New York 1969, p. 16, n. 39)

sh#3

a) Diagram

b) Vertical Cylinder

c) Horizontal Cylinder

d) Anchor-ring*

Sol.

a) 1. h1=Q, 2. Qxd5, 3. Qb5, b3#

b) 1. h1=R 2. Rh5 3. Rb5, b3#

c) h1=B 2. Bg2 3. Bb5, b3#

d) h1=S 2. Sa7 3. Sb5, b3#

* "The ANCHOR-RING is a combination of the Vertical and the Horizontal Cylindres, so that not only do the a and h-files adjoin, but also the 1st and 8th ranks, and the board has no hedges at all" (A. Dickins, op. cit., p. 15).

Para-shogi

This new fairy condition takes of course inspiration from the "Japanese chess", Shogi, modifying some rules. Firstly, the chessboard, 8x8 (the Shogi chessboard is 9x9). The differences in comparison to classical chess are the following ones:

1. A player's promotion zone consists of the furthest one-fourth of the board – the two ranks occupied by the opponent's pieces at setup. When a piece is moved, if part of the piece's path lies within the promotion zone, then the player has the option to promote the piece at the end of the turn.

2. A Knight promotes to Bishop, a Bishop to Rook, a Rook to Queen, a Queen to Knight. The "normal" promotion through pawn in eighth rank is illegal. The pawn can't reach the eighth rank. A white Pa7 can't be moved.

3. Captured pieces are retained in hand, and can be brought back into play under the capturing player's control. On any turn, instead of moving a piece on the board, a player may select a piece in hand and place it on any empty square. The piece is then one of that player's active pieces on the board and can be moved accordingly. This is called dropping the piece, or simply, a drop. A drop counts as a complete move.

A drop cannot capture a piece, nor does dropping within the promotion zone result in immediate promotion. Capture and/or promotion may occur normally, however, on subsequent moves of the piece.

A mere exemple of this new fairy condition:

h#4

Para-shogi

Without white King

Sol. 1. Re5, f5 + 2. Kh7, f6 3. Re7, fxe7=N (a wR can be dropped) 4.Rg7, Rh5 (dropped) #

Luigi Vitale, a maestro

In grateful memory.

Luigi Vitale (1924-2003)
"StrateGems" 2001, 7. M.O.

h#11

Sol. 1.f7-f5 Ka2-a1 2.f5-f4 Bb1-a2 3.f4-f3 Ka1-b1 4.f3-f2 Kb1-c1 5.f2-f1=B Ba2-b1 6.Bf1-c4 b3*c4 7.a3-a2 c4-c5 8.a2-a1=R c5-c6 9.Ra1-a7 Bb1-a2 10.Ra7-e7 c6-c7 11.Kf8-e8 c7-c8=Q #

So Bad So Good

Sol.  1.g7-g5 2.g5*f4 3.f4-f3 4.f3-f2 5.f2-f1=S 6.Sf1-h2 7.Sh2-g4 h3*g4 #

Circe in a 2x2 Chessboard

Ser-h#3

No White King

Fading Chess (frame by frame)

Circe

Transmuting King

Sol. 1. Kb6 2. Kc5 3. Kd4, Pe5=B#. The promotion choice is a move. And now, which could be the rebirth square of Be5? Only the black square d4, donc 4. Kxe5 is impossible. The white Be4 prevents 3...Pe5=Q, because the WQ's rebirth square (in the 2x2 chessboard) would be the white square e4.

To Bounce a Train

Ser-h#6

Circe

Grasshoppers h4, g3

1.Gh4-f2 2.Gg3-e1 3.Gf2-d2 4.Ge1-c3 5.Gd2*b4[+wPb2] 6.Gc3*a5[+wBc1] b2-b3 #

Thème Corniche :)

Rookhoppers a6, b8, b1, g2, h2

Sol. 1.RHg2-g8 2.RHb8-h8 3.RHh8-h1 4.RHh1-a1 5.RHa1-a7 Be2-f3 #

A Swarm of Grasshoppers

Sol.: 1.Gc8-e8 2.Gd8-f8 3.Gf8-h6 4.Gh7-h5 5.Gh6-h4 6.Gh5-h3 7.Gh4-h2 8.Gh3-b3 Gc3-h8 #

The One-Square Chessboard Stalemate. A Joke.

h=7
(without a final white move)

Fading Chessboard along the a8-h1 diagonal: 8x8, 7x7 (square b1-b7-h7-h1), 6x6 (square c1-c6-h6-h1)

Sol. 1. Kd7 2. Kc6 3. Kd5, 4. Ke4 5. Kf3 6. Kg2 7. Kh1= (the King cannot move, because the whole chessboard consists of the square h1).

The Shutter

Ser-h#6

Fading Chessboard (rank by rank, from north to south)

Sol. 1. Kg7 2. Kf6 3. Ke5 4. Kd4 5. Kc3 6. Kb2, b2=Q # (the promotion choice is a move!)

Sunset from the East

Ser-h#7

Fading Chessboard (from column "h" to column "a")

Grasshoppers a7 and c1

Without White King

Sol. 1. Kf5 2. Ke4 3. Kd3 4. Kc2 5. Kb1 6. Gra1 7. Ka2, Grxa1#

The Fading Chessboard

Ser-h#2

Fading chessboard

Ka2 Transmuting King

Bf4 Royal piece

I would propose a new fairy condition: the fading chessboard. After every move, if this move is not a mating move, the chessboard shrinks (all the pieces on the disappeared squares disappear themselves): the 8x8 chessboard becomes a 6x6 one (along the diagonal b7-g2), then a 4x4 (diag. c6-f3), until 2x2: the chessboard is now made up of four squares, d4, e4, d5, e5. At every stage, the chessboard mantains its features: the promotion is possibile on the last line of the enemy's field (but the promoted piece, if it is not the mating piece, will immediately disappear), and the pawns can move two square forward from the second line.

The diagram above (an exercise thet does not have the dignity of a problem) has this "solution": 1. Kb3 2. Kc4, d6=N #.

Of course, many rules of this condition could be modified: e.g., the chessboard could fade row by row (from 1 or 8), column by column (from "a" or "h"), and even square (or group of squares?) by square. Maybe, another, and related, fairy condition could be interesting: with every move, the square by which the move has begun, disappears into nothingness. It looks funny.

"Peccato che le spreco così" (Italian-only Totòesque Humour)

Ser-h#8

Circe

Madrasi RexInclusiv

Sol. 1.Ka6-a7 2.Ka7-b8 3.Kb8-c8 4.Kc8-d8 5.Kd8-e8 6.Ke8-f7 7.Kf7*f6[+wPf2] 8.Kf6-e5 f2-f4 #

Unmanned Apocalypse

h#5

Circe

 1.Kf4-e5 f2-f4 + 2.Ke5-d6 f4-f5 3.Sf7-d8 f5-f6 4.Bh5-e8 f6-f7 5.Kd6-c7 f7*e8=S[+bBc8] #

Einstein's Pigs

a) h#2 Einstein Circe. Sol.  1.Bb6-d4=S Sc6*d4=B[+bSb8] 2.Kb7-a8 Bd4*a7=R # (tested).

b) h#2: add an Imitator (a unit which must exactly imitate every move in length & direction, otherwise the move is illegal.) in g5. Sol. 1. Bc7 [Ih6], Kg7 [Ih7] 2. Bb6 [Ig6], Nd8 [Ih8] #

Madrasi Handcuffs

Circe

Madrasi

Sol. 1.Sf6-g8 f5-f6 2.b3-b2 f6-f7 3.b2-b1=B f7*g8=B 4.a2-a1=R Bg8-a2 =

My First Mermaid

Siren in h1

Siren (Si) moves like a Queen but captures like a Locust (id est captures by hopping over its victim, like in checkers).

Sol. 1.Sd1-b2 SIh1-d1+ 2.Kc2-c1 Sb1-c3 #