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This page is written by the game's inventor, Abdul-Rahman Sibahi.

Energizer Chess

The idea of adding the Archbishop (B+N) and the Chancellor (R+N) to the standard set and pieces have been practically overkilled. With all kinds of 8x10 boards and 10x10 boards and different starting positions, I haven't seen anyone who came up with this idea.

It's inspired by Yasser Seirawan's attempt to add the two pieces on the traditional board, and David Paulowich's different games with their unorthodox pawn structure.

The name is taken from the well-known batteries. Since I couldn't come up with a better name.

Setup

The starting setup is inspired by Grand Chess and Embassy Chess.

ANOTHER possible placement for the Knights would be to put them front of the two rooks with two Pawns in front of them. (The center pawns are on the second rank.) This helps to a faster development of Bishops (and Knights,) so the minor pieces can get into the fight more quickly.

Update: 24-07-2007 : Alternate starting setup.

An alternate starting position, based on Optimized Chess by Derek Nalls (OmegaMan) is this :

The Optional Shuffle rule (see below) and the suggested setup for Knights in front of Rooks still hold.

Pieces

Pawns may make a double step from their second rank. They may be captured en passant while doing so.

The Archbishop is Bishop+Knight. The Chancellor is Rook+Knight.

All other pieces are as in Standard Chess.

Rules

All rules of Standard chess apply, except noted otherwise. Castling is as usual with the normal restrictions. --- Update 13-05-2007 : Optional rule: A player may, before White's first move, switch the positions of two of his Grand pieces. Black's switch doesn't have to mirror White's. For example, White may switch the Queen and the Archbishop; Black switches the King and the Queen. Castling is still by moving the King two squares towards one of the two Rooks. (This is similar to castling in Chess480, except that the King may not be on the b and g files. (UPDATE, this might be the case in the second starting postion, see above.) A player might also prefer the original position and doesn't switch. After the switches, play proceeds normally. The switch is annotated as a zero move. If a player didn't switch we write "none". For example, if White switches Queen and Chancellor, Black doesn't switch: 0. C-Q none . (C is before Q alphabetically.) Normal moves are written normally. Castling should be written as a King move (like Kg1 for normal Short castling,) to avoid confusion when it comes to Short castling and Long castling.

Notes

My 2 cents in the most invented chess variant. I am not sure how the openings will play out, but it would be fun to see.

the two halves of the board should be called the Royal-side (King and Queen) and the Knightly-side (Archbishop and Chancellor,) instead of the King-side and Queen-side (which, however, apply to the Opti setup.)

Thank you for reading.

This 'user submitted' page is a collaboration between the posting user and the Chess Variant Pages. Registered contributors to the Chess Variant Pages have the ability to post their own works, subject to review and editing by the Chess Variant Pages Editorial Staff.

By Abdul-Rahman Sibahi.

Last revised by H. G. Muller.


Web page created: 2007-05-10. Web page last updated: 2023-02-20