Tiled Squares Chess

By Tony Quintanilla

Introduction

"Tiled Squares Chess" has evolved from my "Chameleon Chess" and "Shifting Sands Chess", particularly the idea that the properties of the squares affect the powers of the pieces. Ralph Betza's "Shifted Square Chess" and "More Shifted Square Chess" and Gavin King's "Motorotor" also suggested that the board is not immutable.

Setup

The initial setup is identical to FIDE Chess, except that the 3rd through 6th ranks of the board have no tiles--that is, the board is a void between the piece arrays!

Pieces

The standard FIDE pieces are used.

Rules

All the normal rules of Chess apply with the following exceptions:

During a turn players may either move piece, drop a Tile on the board, remove a Tile, or drop an Anti-Tile on the board.

Tile and Anti-Tile drops must follow the board's normal rank and file lines. They may be dropped on any empty space on the board.

The image below illustrates how to drop a Tile.

The image below illustrates how to drop an Anti-Tile.

All pieces may make their normal FIDE moves except that they may only land on a Tile. The only exception is the King, which may move to any space that does not have a friendly piece on it, and which is not threatened by an opposing piece or will not be threatened by an opposing piece immediately upon being created by the King. The King creates a Tile on an untiled space as it lands on it, or replaces an Anti-Tile with a Tile as it lands on it.

That is, pieces cannot land on a non-existent part of the board that has not yet been created. As they make these moves, they may move over non-existent parts of the board, just not land there. Remember that all pieces are on Tiles, so capture is never affected by this rule.

The image below illustrates the Queen's movement capabilities. This image shows the Tiles dropped by White outlined in white and those dropped by Black outlined in black. However, for the purposes of movement, it does not matter which player dropped the Tile.

The only piece that ignores this rule is the King. Note that the King may not create and move onto a Tile on a space where it will be threatened by an opposing piece, even though that space is not currently threatened because it has no Tile. The King's movement capabilities are illustrated below.

Pieces may not pass through Anti-Tiles, the only exception is the Knight. Pieces may not land on an Anti-Tile, the only exception is the King.

The Knight may not land on an Anti-Tile, but may leap over Anti-Tiles. The King ignores the Anti-Tile altogether. As shown above, the King moves wherever he wishes and creates a Tile as he goes and leaves a Tile upon exiting a space. The Knight's movement capabilities are illustrated below.

A Tile may be removed from the board under the following conditions: it was dropped by the player removing it and has not since been occupied by an opposing piece; the Tile was last occupied by a friendly piece; or it was created as a result of a move by the friendly King.

In other words, in some respects a player can be said of own certain Tiles. This ownership, however, has no affect on movement, only on the ability to subsequently remove that Tile from the board. Ownership in the above illustrations is designated by a white or black border.

Anti-Tiles may not be removed from the board except when a King moves onto an Anti-Tile. Note that it does not matter in any way which player drops an Anti-Tile. Hence, there is no need to differentiate Anti-Tiles by player.

Playing Tips

Tiled Squares Chess is most different during the opening and early middle game. As the board become more filled in it becomes progressively more like FIDE Chess, although removing Tiles and dropping Anti-Tiles can change this trend.

The initial moves in the game should be focused on dropping Tiles where your initial moves will be made. Of course, your opponent can also make use of your Tiles.

Adding an Anti-Tile is a powerful option to block certain ranks, files and diagonals, however, bear in mind that once dropped Anti-Tiles cannot be removed except by the King moving to an Anti-Tile.

Notes

Again, the idea of creating the board as one goes can be applied to almost any Chess variant, with various board sizes, board configurations, rules and piece arrays

Computer Play

If you have Zillions of Games installed on your computer, you can play this game. Download the ZRF as the below link.

The images on this page were created using this ZRF.

Equipment

Standard Chess equipment can be used. Some kind of designation to indicate squares that have Tiles, no Tiles, or anti-Tiles is needed.

Comments

Tiled Squares Chess. Drop tiles to create the board as you play. (8x8, Cells: 64)

💡📝Tony Quintanilla wrote on Fri, Aug 27, 2004 12:06 AM EDT:

All pieces make their normal moves, except they may only move onto a square that exists, that is, that has a tile on it.

Anonymous wrote on Thu, Aug 26, 2004 01:54 AM EDT:

How does the King move?

💡📝Tony Quintanilla wrote on Sat, Jul 19, 2003 10:38 AM EDT:

Robert, I did test this situation a bit. Let's say that its the end game and the loosing player has a lone King and the opposing player has a King and Queen. The loosing King is being progressively cornered. The loosing player starts to drop Anti-Tiles to block ranks and files and diagonals. Eventually, the loosing King will block himself into a corner with Anti-Tiles, hoping for stalemate by the 50-move rule, but this does not save him. Once the board is completely filled with Tiles and Anti-Tiles, this tactic fails. The loosing King is forced to move. As the King moves Tiles are created! In addition, the winning player's King can replace Anti-Tiles with Tiles everywhere except adjacent to the loosing King. Then the winning side can force checkmate. The above scenario assumes that the loosing player has been very succesful in droping Anti-Tiles. By the end game, most critical squares have Tiles. In order to drop an Anti-Tile, the Tile must first be removed. This creates an opportunity for the winning player to drop a Tile there. This Tile cannot be removed by the loosing player. The only hope that the loosing player has is that the winning player goes 50 moves without being able to put him in check or move a Pawn. This is possible, but unlikely.Perhaps there is a tricky way to avoid loosing by dropping Anti-Tiles, but I don't think so. I would like to know if there is.

Robert Shimmin wrote on Sat, Jul 19, 2003 07:44 AM EDT:

I wonder whether a player could drop enough anti-tiles to force a draw when each side could not bring enough force to bear on the other.

💡📝Tony Quintanilla wrote on Sat, Jul 19, 2003 01:12 AM EDT:

Peter, your comment is well taken. You are right that dropping and picking up tiles could be used as a stalling tactic or due to lack of experience by a beginner. I suppose the game could get very tedious if both players did this. I would think that an astute player could take advantage of such a game by his opponent to develop his position better. Taken to an absurd degree, the 3-times repetition rule or the 50-move rules would result in stalemate. Your suggestion to force a move every 3 moves could be implemented, however, during the opening such a rule might stifle legitimate positional drops.

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