Chess18

• The king is on the E file
• The rooks are in the corners

There’s a lot to be said about Chess18; it gives enough variety to allow people to concentrate on play instead of memorizing openings. It does not alter any rules of chess (no complicated castling rules) in any way; the only thing that changes is the opening setup.

Tinder Moose 2023

I have a PGN file of games played there, as well as links to games: 1 2 3 4 5 6 - 7 8 9 10 11 12 - 13 14 15 16 - 17 18 19 - 20 21 22 - 23 24 25 26 - 27 28 29 30 - 31 32 - 33 34 35 36 37

Choosing a setup

The Timber Moose method

1. RBNQKNBR Chess2
2. RBNQKNBR Chess2 (Again, more likely)
3. RBBQKNNR Chess3
4. RBBQKNNR Chess3
5. RNNQKBBR Chess4
6. RNNQKBBR Chess4
7. RQBNKBNR Chess5
8. RQNBKNBR Chess6
9. RQBBKNNR Chess7
10. RQNNKBBR Chess8
11. RBQNKNBR Chess9
12. RNQBKNBR Chess10
13. RNQNKBBR Chess11
14. RNBBKQNR Chess12
15. RBNNKQBR Chess13
16. RBBNKQNR Chess14
17. RNNBKQBR Chess15
18. RNBNKBQR Chess16
19. RBBNKNQR Chess17
20. RNBBKNQR Chess18

1. RNBQKBNR Critical failure: Play Classic Chess (+28 Rank 3)
2. RBNQKNBR +30 Rank 5
3. RBBQKNNR +25 Rank 2
4. RNNQKBBR +32 Rank 9
5. RQBNKBNR +30 Rank 5
6. RQNBKNBR +23 Rank 1
7. RQBBKNNR +35 Rank 11
8. RQNNKBBR +31 Rank 7
9. RBQNKNBR +44 Rank 15
10. RNQBKNBR +33 Rank 10
11. RNQNKBBR +41 Rank 12
12. RNBBKQNR +49 Rank 17
13. RBNNKQBR +31 Rank 7
14. RBBNKQNR +41 Rank 12
15. RNNBKQBR +52 Rank 18
16. RNBNKBQR +42 Rank 14
17. RBBNKNQR +29 Rank 4
18. RNBBKNQR +47 Rank 16
19. Play Classic Chess, but White’s first move is either 1. Nc3 or 1. a3 (White chooses)
20. Critical success: Black chooses the Chess18 setup to play

A roll of 19 plays Classic Chess, but with White’s first move forced to be either 1. Nc3 or 1. a3 (White’s choice). These are good “pie rule” moves which equalize the position for Black (while Stockfish thinks 1. a3 favors Black, and that 1. Nc3 is balanced, White has slightly better results with 1. a3 in human play compared to 1. Nc3).

The evaluations of these positions are based on Stockfish18 doing a 35-ply score of all 18 positions, looking at all 20 possible opening moves.

The setups