What is the point of "duck chess"?

Hi i'm Kat

I'm just wodering, what is the point of duck chess? like I don't get it AT ALL! Please if you know,

inform me!

Thank you SO MUCH!!!!

What is duck chess? I haven't heard of such variant in chess

Oh it's on chaess and you can play it with a friend or a random person

Duck chess is pretty similar to normal chess, but the duck can be used to block your opponent from making good moves. Another cool feature is that you can use the duck to make discovered attacks. If you have the duck in between your queen and your opponent’s king, then on the next move when he’s forced to move the duck, you can swoop in and take his king.

It`s the "pickleball" of Chess!

There's lots of new tricks which feeds your tactical awareness.

It also helps understand the fundamental importance of zugzwang in chess, since you can create similar situations - not only in the endgame, but in opening or middlegame positions, since your opponent has to move the duck.

this game is not just a fun variant, it has much deeper tactics than regular chess as every player turn leads to over 600 different moves.
strategically... I think we still have to discover the whole of it.

OMG TYSM

You're welcome, Kat!

I find duck chess to be entertaining, but it also teaches you to think ahead and watch the board closely, of which both skills are highly useful in normal chess.

ty

One day I hope that Stockfish adds Duck Chess to its repertoire. However the best variant would be different than the normal one. The human gets to put the duck on a new square after his or her turn, but Stockfish only gets to remove the duck after its move. This would be the best equalizer against a computer that has an ELO rating of 3700.

I have played it a few times here with a perfect record.

It is a "Poor Man's Coin Chess"

Coin chess is harder than duck chess.  It is not a variant on here, but it ought to be.

Here is how Coin chess works.

You set up the board normally with a penny (or any other coin) placed on d3.  White starts the game in check (you will see why in a moment.

Here are the rules:

1) The Coin cannot be captured under any circumstances.

2) The Coin cannot be jumped but any piece except the Knight

3) Your piece must move first, so, for example, the move d2-d4 on move 1 by White is illegal.

4) The Coin must move exactly the way your piece or pawn does.  So of White plays Ng1-f3, the Coin must go from d3 to c5.  If you play 1.Nh3 or 1.Nc3, the Coin must go from d3 to e5.  If you play 1.e2-e4, the Coin must go d3-d5.

5) If you castle, the Coin must move like the King did.

6) Here's the tricky part.  The Coin always acts as the color on the move.  The Coin, on White's turn, can only capture Black pieces.  The Coin on Black's turn can only capture White pieces.  And the Coin must be able to move legally the way your piece did.

So, for example, if the Coin is on b5, and a5 is either empty or occupied by a black piece or pawn, it dies not matter that White has a Rook on f1 with b1, c1, d1, and e1 open, it turns out that rook can only legally go to e1 as the Coin only has room to move ONE SQUARE in that direction.  Let's say a Black pawn is on d5.  The a1-rook can go to b1 or c1, but NOT d1 or e1 as it would force the Coin to jump on a non-knight move, which is illegal.

In that case also, Ra1-c1 would result in a pawn capture, penny takes d5 (a1-c1 is 2 squares to White's right, so b5-d5, taking the Black pawn.  If that were a White pawn, that would be an illegal move for White.

So because Black has the legal moves at the start of the game of 1...Nc6 or 1...Nh6, White is in check on move 1.

Remember, the penny can put you in check if and only if that player has a piece that can move the same way.

So if the White King is the only piece on the 1st rank besides the penny, and it is on e1, and the penny is on a1, White would only be in check by the penny if Black has a legal move of a Rook or Queen going 4 squares in that direction.  Also note that if the penny is on a1, and it is Black to move, he can ONLY move something to his left, backwards, or diagonally backwards to his left because the penny at that point cannot go forward or to the right from Black's perspective.  So getting the penny to your own back rank, provided it does not cost you material or your King, could be a good thing as it would make ALL pawn moves on that turn illegal for your opponent.

Like regular chess, if he has no legal move, it is stalemate, but more often, one side ends up in zugzwang because of the penny.

Wow, that sounds insane! Definitely sounds harder than duck chess, but sounds cool. Sounds like a nightmare to code, though 😆

It sounds like fun!

I played Coin Chess as child 40 years ago in our local chess club. But Duck Chess is better.

The point of duck chess is duck

Thank you, @ScatteredWealth for this insightful insight on Duck Chess.