Avalanche chess is a
chess variant designed by
Ralph Betza
Ralph Betza (born 1945) is a FIDE Master and inventor of chess variants such as Chess with different armies, Avalanche chess, and Way of the Knight.
Invented chess variants
* Multiplayer Chess (date unknown)
* High-Low Chess (1968)
* Strang ...
in 1977. After moving one of their own pieces, a player ''must'' move one of the opponent's pawns forward one square.
Game rules
Rules are as normal
chess
Chess is a board game for two players, called White and Black, each controlling an army of chess pieces in their color, with the objective to checkmate the opponent's king. It is sometimes called international chess or Western chess to dist ...
except that after making a legal move, a player ''must'' move one of the opponent's pawns exactly one square forward (i.e. towards the player) to complete the turn. Capturing with an opponent's pawn is not permitted. If the opponent has no pawns or none can be moved, then that part of the turn is skipped. The pawn moved forward cannot be used by the opponent to capture ''
en passant
''En passant'' (, "in passing") is a method of capturing in chess that occurs when a pawn captures a horizontally adjacent enemy pawn that has just made an initial two-square advance. The capturing pawn moves to the square that the enemy paw ...
''. If an opponent's pawn is moved to promotion, then the opponent chooses to what piece it promotes; if the promotion gives
check
Check or cheque, may refer to:
Places
* Check, Virginia
Arts, entertainment, and media
* ''Check'' (film), a 2021 Indian Telugu-language film
* ''The Checks'' (episode), a 1996 TV episode of ''Seinfeld''
Games and sports
* Check (chess), a thr ...
, the opponent wins the game. If every legal pawn move forward gives check, then the opponent wins immediately, even if the player checked or
mated
In biology, mating is the pairing of either opposite- sex or hermaphroditic organisms for the purposes of sexual reproduction. ''Fertilization'' is the fusion of two gametes. ''Copulation'' is the union of the sex organs of two sexually reprodu ...
the opponent previously that same turn.
Specifics regarding check
* Check can be given on either or both halves of a player's turn.
* A player in check must get out of check on the first half of their turn.
* A move into check is illegal even if moving an opponent's pawn on the second half of the turn would remove the check.
References
*
*
*
*
Further reading
*
*
*
External links
Avalanche chessat ''
The Chess Variant Pages
''The Chess Variant Pages'' is a non-commercial website devoted to chess variants. It was created by Hans Bodlaender in 1995. The site is "run by hobbyists for hobbyists" and is "the most wide-ranging and authoritative web site on chess variants" ...
''
Avalanche Chessa simple program by Ed Friedlander
(Java
Java (; id, Jawa, ; jv, ꦗꦮ; su, ) is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea to the north. With a population of 151.6 million people, Java is the world's mos ...
)
{{Chess variants, state=collapsed
Chess variants
1977 in chess
Board games introduced in 1977