Behemoth Loop Chess
This variant is based on Behemoth Chess. I'm aiming to reduce the luck factor of this game. The Behemoth is rather devastating, often extremely skewing the material balance or killing a king and ending the game.
In my variant, all the material swiped away by the beast is not out of the game, but given back to the respective owner to be dropped later. Even the kings are included in this cycle. If a player gets their king handed by the Behemoth, they may not leave it off the board and in safety, but have to drop the king in the very next turn.
Setup
Like in orthodox chess, but an additional piece called Behemoth is placed on d4.
Rules
The pieces move like in orthodox chess, but the King rule doesn't exist i. e. it is allowed to leave the King attacked or castle from or over an attacked square. A piece called Behemoth is initially placed on d4. The Behemoth can't be moved by any player but moves randomly. The Behemoth can't be captured.
The turn order is:
- White moves
- Behemoth moves
- Black moves
- Behemoth moves
The player to move either moves a piece on the board or drops a piece from their hand onto an empty square. The hands of the players are initially empty. If a player has the King in hand, they must drop the King in that turn. A pawn may not be dropped onto the 1st or 8th row.
The behemoth moves like in original Behemoth Chess, in orthogonal or diagonal direction over a distance of up to four squares. The direction and the distance are chosen randomly and equally distributed. The Behemoth can leave the board over an edge and reenter from the other side i. e. it behaves as if the board was toroidal. The other pieces cannot move over the edge.
The Behemoth captures every piece in its path, not only a piece on the destination square. A piece captured by the Behemoth is given to the hand of the owning player. The pieces do not change owner/colour when captured. If a promoted piece is captured, it stays promoted. The capture of a King by the Behemoth doesn't end the game, but the player whose King is captured must drop the King in their following turn.
An en passant capture is only possible if the Behemoth has not already captured the pawn that made the double move.
A piece captured by an opponent's piece goes out of the game. The game is won by capturing the opponent's King by an own piece.
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By Thomas .
Web page created: 2023-02-09. Web page last updated: 2023-04-22