Time Travel Chessgi

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Logs for Time Travel Chessgi.

The rule is that every two moves, one can travel backward or forward in time. Then one goes back (or forward) to the exact same position (I call this experience "General Time Travel" below) that occured before and repeats the same move (or makes a different move), but brings all the pocket pieces and pawns along.

Restrictions on Time Travel

If you have no pieces or pawns in your pocket, you can not perform a general time travel (but can perform a specific time travel).

You can not perform a general time travel into a future that has not occurred. In other words, general time travel into the future is not possible until after a time travel into the past has occurred. Special time travel into the future is allowed at any time, however.

You can not time travel if your king is in check (neither general time travel nor special time travel).

If your pocket is completely full, you can not initiate a special time travel until there is room for another piece. You can, however, initiate a general time travel at that time.

You must wait two moves before time traveling again (in other words, you can time travel only every three turns or three turns after your opponent has time traveled).

Special Time Traveling for Individual Pieces into Specified Future

Any piece (with further restrictions governing the king's ability to do this) can time travel into a future that has not yet occured all by itself. To do this, you must specify which piece it is that is doing the time traveling and which move it is supposed to return. Then when that turn arrives, you must either place the piece or lose it if you choose to drop a different piece or move a piece on the board (in fact, you may be forced to do this, if you king is in check at the time of the scheduled return).

King Time Travel

Even kings can time travel into the future, but only up to five moves. But when a king is specified to return, it must return no matter what else may be going on in the game.

For example, someone could have just taken your protected queen with his queen. But if your king is destined to return, you can't take back his queen. So be very careful about king time traveling. If your King can not return without putting himself into check, the game is lost.

What happens to individual pieces that are destined to return if the general position changes (via general time travel)?

The play continues with return scheduled for the same specified move. Meanwhile, the piece's old self may have reappeared on the board -- that's okay. It will have to find a way of coexisting with its duplicate. One day, we may live in a world where each of us lives alongside duplicates and hopefully we will be able to see our duplicate selves not as threats or competitors but be able to cooperate with them to create perhaps a greater identity. It would be sad if we get duplicated and our duplicates are enslaved by other people. It may improve our class consciousness if we have to live among poorer selves. Hopefully, we will have compassion for the selves that are living in relative squalor.

Notes

The "General Position" Time Travel aspect to this game was inspired by Nintendo's Animal Crossing game, which allows time travel too where you get to keep your possessions and travel into the future or the past.

The whole game itself was very much inspired by Gary Gifford's Time Travel Chess , which might also be called, Royal Time Travel Chess because time travel is always related closely to the king in that game.

The issue of self-duplication is one that appears briefly in Gary Gifford's House of Mirrors Chess but will be further explored in a forthcoming variant of mine. I have a whole new class of squares, self-duplicating squares, that I have been intending to introduce.

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By Jeremy Gabriel Good.
Web page created: 2007-07-14. Web page last updated: 2007-07-14

Comments

Time Travel Chessgi. One can travel backwards or forwards in time, bringing along all one's possessions.

Jeremy Good wrote on Tue, Jul 24, 2007 08:39 AM EDT:

It turns out that because of the way Game Courier is set up to hide all pathways that are overwritten by a subsequent move, it is not currently possible to make any 'General Time Travels' into any futures. So until that situation is remedied (anyone know how to fix it?) only 'General Time Travels' into the past are allowed.

Jeremy Good wrote on Sun, Jul 22, 2007 10:02 AM EDT:

One has to be careful about dropping pieces in this game because a dropped piece will be lost, at least temporarily, if your opponent makes a general time travel into the past after you drop it. This won't be possible if you can drop with check however, so dropping with check can be a good idea.

Jeremy Good wrote on Thu, Jul 19, 2007 03:04 PM EDT:

Updated the rules a bit to specify / clarify some differences between restrictions on 'general' time travel (referring to the whole board) and 'special' time travel (referring to individual pieces traveling into the future).

Jeremy Good wrote on Wed, Jul 18, 2007 07:28 PM EDT:

Now that I've opened up that can of worms, I'm wondering whether I should restrict one from making drops as moves while General Time Traveling. To be filed under subject heading, 'Restrictions for General Time Travel'? For now, I'll not restrict it, but after playtesting, I might. It's an unsettling idea, a piece dropping in from the future.

Jeremy Good wrote on Wed, Jul 18, 2007 05:14 PM EDT:

When one makes a General Time Travel, the pocket is the only thing that stays the same. Everything else goes back or forward to that moment in time when one travels. This is a very generous rule, as long as material is still relatively equal. If you've just become the victim of a combination, but the negative exchange or loss has not yet occurred, you can avoid the consequences by retreating back in time. If you're not satisfied with the results of your opening, just go back in time; try something different.

Bear in mind this though: Your opponent might very well want to revisit that negative future from which you retreated later!

But...

...the moment a material imbalance occurs, this time traveling into the past won't likely help you and will probably hurt you. Your opponent may want to return to the opening to exploit a weakness s/he didn't have the material to exploit the first time around.

I would really like to encourage people playing this game to do this sort of time travel often. Of course, if you're not comfortable with that, you and your opponent can agree at the outset to limit the number of general time travels.