Create a new chess piece!

I thought about 3D chess - basically, say, three (or more) boards one over another...

...and then there would be a new piece, through which all the others would go up or down :) Let's call it an Elevator.

I didn't make my mind as for the initial position, how many Elevators would each player start with or how they would move (like King?), it's just a germ of an idea. Obviously they'd be of very high value and essential in combinations.

I also thought about "improving" the monarch himself, how about giving the King "two lifes" - it could survive one capture; capturing it would annihilate the attacking piece. That would open lots of tactical possibilities I believe

I believe you could add endless complexity to the game without adding any new piece. Just by giving a new speciall move to any of the existing ones. Just like panws have "en-passant" or kings have Castle, maybe knights or bishops could get a 1 time special move.

Just think of it.

Knights: could get a 2 moves in a row once in the game. As long as they don't take any piece. However thay CAN check with the second move.

Bishops: you can choose one of them and... step to the side! and change colors once in the game. BUT you can't take pieces with that move. And you can only do that while still having both bishops... that would balance the endgame. Since it would be too cheap to switch colors of your last bishop.

Rooks: Maybe they can jump over a piece that is next to them once per rook, as long as the destination square is empty. That could be awesome both for early attack or for versatilty in defence.

the crazy part is.. you could make players CHOOSE what speciall move they want before starting. Knight combo, bishop color, or rook jump. You can't have them all.

One final point about the Polymorph (formerly known as chameleon/predator/imitator/mimic) is that its dimensions, shape, orientation and placement within its square would have to be agreed - if the [in this case virtual] 'Touch Move' rule was in force.

How about a Kueen? It's a knight and a queen combined. You could checkmate with a Kueen with nothing to protect it!

For example: (The Queen is the "Kueen" in this example)

But to make it more fair, the only way to obtain one is by promoting a pawn. Or maybe by promoting two pawns:

when the 1st is promoted, it is taken off the board without promoting it, and when a second pawn reaches the end of the board, it becomes a Kueen!

Kueen is a cool idea but how often do you get two pawns promoted?

A Magician.

It starts in the lower left and right corners of a 10x10 board. It has multiple attacks, but it can not use the last one it used. It is moved like a knight, but it's attacks are:

• Capture like a king would, 1 square away, and the piece cannot be defended.
• Capture anything within a king's move away, no extra restrictions
• Knight's capture.
• Rook's capture.

These are really annoying in endgames.

DJHeilke wrote:

As a nod to the state of modern warfare, I'd create the IED (or mine, if you prefer).  The rules are simple, and require no extra tokens:  Each player chooses two squares on rows 3-6 at the start of the game as "mined"(marked on slips of paper); any piece that moves through a mined square would be blown up, in the middle of the moving players turn, but the detonation of the mine would count as the opposing player's turn and the moving player would be allowed to move again (but would have one less piece to move with :(  ).  Any piece landing on a mined square would be at the mercy of the mine-owning player's choice: blow it up on any of his turns as his move, or wait until the piece tried to move and blew itself up automatically.  To detonate a mine, just shout "BOOM!" in a loud voice (try it, it's fun) and reveal the slip of paper with the mined square to your opponent (you can snicker with glee if the opponent tried to move his queen or a rook).  Knights can jump over pieces, and so can only be caught by landing on a mine, pawns can only move through if they moved two squares on their first turn, otherwise they would have to land on top.  As with all pieces, you can't occupy a square with more than one piece, so you can't move one of your pieces on to one of your mines (that gives your opponent clues as to where your mines might be).  The king alone is immune: if the king comes within one square of a mine, then the opponent must call check, and reveal the mined square as the source of the check (though he may move normally first).  A penny or some other small implement can be used to mark a revealed mined square for the rest of the game, at that point.  If the king is in check and the only squares to which he can move contain mines, then the king is counted as checkmated.

What do y'all think??  Anybody want to play test it????

How about if I place the mine under the opponent's king..... BOOM, I win hehe

Suicide bomber:  Once you get him into position, you can take your move to clear out all of the peices from the 3x3 square he stands in the middle of (regardless of who's they are, and of course, including the bomber).  If you happen to get the king, the game is over.

Even though that does bring an element of surprise - it eliminates the thought process of chess and introduces chance or luck. I would rather keep chess a thinking game.

Pseudoprogrammer wrote:

Spear.  It moves like a rook, but with a maximum distance of 2 squares.  But if it moves 2 squares it can kill the peice it lands on AND the one it jumped over.

 i think its a good idea but it must just capture the piece it land on! capturing 2 pieces at once seems unfair!!

Capablanca had a point, but if I were in charge of the chess universe, I would take a different approach than add complexity.

The Crazy Bouncing Ball!

Once the 40th move has been made by black the Crazy Bouncing Ball Armageddon Showdown shall begin!

Each player must call in their new phenomena "Squire" which is a player at least half your age and half your height. Each squire places a new piece called the Vortex of Doom which moves like an electron around a proton. Everywhere at the same time!

Meanwhile, the two chess players have to arm wrestle across the board while the quantum battle rages beneath their fists. Once the armwrestle is over, the loser must count to 3, and meanwhile, the winner must grab the opponents king and run off with it. Now the chase can start, and the two squires are allowed to throw obstacles at the players chasing one another around the room, while the crowd goes WILD!

The game ends once one of the players feints in exhaustion and the other can claim the win by climbing the chess board and shout.

This would be good because it adds doping to chess like every other sport, and it would never be a draw.

In all serious though, the game is so incredibly well balanced in it's current form I'd not touch it.  That being said, I think a cool idea would be versions of the existing peices (kings and pawns excluded) that can wrap around the board (from the first rank to the eighth and from the a-file to the h-file.  In that case this would be checkmate:

Some very interesting suggestions:) 

Well, that's all I meant to say.  Then I got an idea for a piece, don't think this ones been mentioned yet.  What about a hovering piece!?  The piece could hover above its position (other pieces could occupy the square it hovers over) for say 2 or 3 moves and it cannot be captured while it is in hover mode. 

Of course on a real board, minus a tiny little propeller on a knights or bishops noggin, it would remain on its square but you would announce to your opponent my move is to place my bishop at e5 in hover mode. 

This could really make things complicated when it comes to defence and executing tactical shots.

wow!  How creative!!!  some of the ideas exposed here are fantastic! Good on you all!  The "what if" seems a great exercise but i'm glad it won't be done... i'm an old-fashioned traditionalist...!

A page or squire. One pawn is randomly selected to become this "page" or "squire". The page or squire can move 1-2 squares everyturn in the same direction as the pawn, but it cannot take =D

Capablanca Chess answers it all

How about "The Prince" or "Princess". A piece which replaces the pawns on the ends of the rank. They can move like Kings, but have no other powers. This would facilitate the opening on the edges and could be a lot of fun. 

I'm undecided as to whether or not they should be able to be promoted. Right now, I'm thinking not. They have enough power, and it would make the remaining pawns even more valuable. 

The Emperor.  It moves like a King, except 2 spaces in any direction instead of one.  It also supercedes the King; once the Emperor hits the table, the King becomes just another standard piece that can be captured.  The Emperor is now the piece that must be checkmated to win. 

No player begins with an Emperor.  The only way to get one is to promote a pawn into the role.  No deviations to the board or standard chess play would be required. 

Rubber band Chess.

No new pieces, but you and put a rubber band around any number of your connected pieces then move them as a composite/gestalt entity. If you group a bishop, a pawn and a rook, then this group could do a diagonal take forwards, a diagonal take backwards followed by a check moving sideways. The move notation would be fascinating.

(GENERAL OBSERVATION: any proposed piece that changes its functionality during the game makes it tricky to keep track of when the opponent's king is in check!)

I'd like a piece that moves like the queen and the knight. It can also jump over pieces like an ordinary knight.