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Swap Chess. A move can consist of a series of pieces swapping places. (8x8, Cells: 64) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]

Steve wrote on Tue, Jan 3, 2006 05:00 PM UTC:

There seems to be a missed hole in the rules.  If I follow your rules
exactly and interpret 'how I see fit' (which may or may not be correct
in the spirit of the game, but that should be addressed in the rules).

In your sample game at move 12. Bb5/c6/d7+, you have a lost queen because
the king is in check and the queen is under attack by the knight. with the
reply 12... Ke8:d7.  But in strict adherence to the rules, would the
following be a valid response? 12... Qh2/h4/g4/d7/f7/g7/h7/e4+  This gets
the queen away from the knight, removes check from the bishop, and
doesn't check the white king until after the black king has been removed
from check.  There were no new checks encountered during the swaps (with
rule 2.4, something that a move like 12... Qh2/e5/c5/c6/d7/c8 does not
hold to, as the c5 swap puts black illegally in check by the white queen),
and the end of the board position ended with black not in check any more. 
In general, it seems that this variant makes the queen far too powerful
and hard to capture, as it is able to move itself out of harm's way with
relative ease.

If the following rule is added, it should make the rules less ambiguous
while maintaining (what I believe) is the original 'spirit' of the
game:
8. A player must not have his own king in check at any point along a
series of swaps, even if the final move position leaves his king not in
check.