Check out Balbo's Chess, our featured variant for October, 2024.

This page is written by the game's inventor, Rich Hutnik.

Shatranj Extended Tournament Scoring (S.E.T.S) Rules

Shatranj Extended Tournament Scoring (S.E.T.S, SETS) Rules are based off the original win conditions found in the predecessor to to chess, Shatranj, but is extended to cover more potential draw positions, with the intention of being used in tournaments setting. The purpose of these rules are to reduce the number of draws, add granularity between different game states that normally count as draws (awarding points to the side that benefits the most from the game state), and provide a basis to allow for handicapping for players of diverse skills.  Handicapping would be done by tweaking the values each state is, based on skill level.  A handicapping system based on SETS still needs to be determined.

Setup

These rules are for tournament scoring and suitable for any chess variant.

Pieces

These rules are for tournament scoring and suitable for any chess variant.

Rules

Here is how different conditions are scored:
1. A win by checkmate, or an opponent resigning, is worth 2 points.
2. Count barring the king (reducing their opponent to just their king) as a 1 point victory.  However, if that player's king is also bared on the very next move by their opponent, then the victory is worth only 1/2 point. When the situation of barring the king arises, the player has a decision whether or not to take the 1 point upon their next move, if they also don't have a barred king.  If they fail to take the barred king victory, then this opportunity passes.  In this case, other scores can come into being. 
3. Stalemate is worth 1 point to the player who causes their opponent to being a position where they are stalemated.  
4. At a start of a game, a player picks a color to play. In event of the chance that a draw occurs (a game ending state that matches none of these game conditions), their opponent would score 1/2 point for the draw, while they score no points.  Conversely, players can choose to let their opponent pick color in exchange for 1/2 point for a draw.
4a. If a game goes 30 consecutive moves without a side making a capture, or a pawn being moved, the game is considered in a drawn state.  The player who has the draw advantage (see last rule), is awarded the 1/2 point for the draw.  Their opponent gets no points.
5. Count 3 move check repetition as a 1 point win for the player who checks their opponent's king 3 turns in a row.
6. In event of of a 3 move repetition on a rare chance that it is mutual checking back and forth, that would end up counting as a victory for the first player to get the 3 checks in at the same time, and it is worth 1/2 point.  
7. In the event of a 3 move repetition where neither side checks the other king, the player who goes second to cause a third move repetition would end up losing, awarding their opponent 1/2 points.

Notes

These rules are a first attempt to come up with a more granular scoring system for chess and chess variant tournaments, that integrate draws into the scoring system, but do it in such a way that they are treated as "Non-Checkmate end conditions" rather than a straight up draw.  These rules look back to Shatranj for potential answers, but add even more granularity.  The hope is that these rules can be a starting point for developing a useful scoring system that can be used in a range of chess variants tournaments.

Copyright 2008, by Rich Hutnik (IAGO World Tour Enterprises), for public uses.  These rules are free to distribute, and use.  Modification of these rules is permitted, provided that these rules are acknowledged as contributing to the creation of a different scoring system.


This 'user submitted' page is a collaboration between the posting user and the Chess Variant Pages. Registered contributors to the Chess Variant Pages have the ability to post their own works, subject to review and editing by the Chess Variant Pages Editorial Staff.


By Rich Hutnik.
Web page created: 2008-04-17. Web page last updated: 2008-04-17