Capablanca chess (or Capablanca's chess) is a
chess variant
A chess variant is a game related to, derived from, or inspired by chess. Such variants can differ from chess in many different ways.
"International" or "Western" chess itself is one of a family of games which have related origins and could be co ...
invented in the 1920s by
World Chess Champion
The World Chess Championship is played to determine the world champion in chess. The current world champion is Magnus Carlsen of Norway, who has held the title since 2013.
The first event recognized as a world championship was the 1886 match ...
José Raúl Capablanca
José Raúl Capablanca y Graupera (19 November 1888 – 8 March 1942) was a Cuban chess player who was world chess champion from 1921 to 1927. A chess prodigy, he is widely renowned for his exceptional endgame skill and speed of play.
Capablanc ...
. It incorporates two new pieces and is played on a 10×8 board. Capablanca believed that
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 disti ...
would be played out in a few decades (meaning games between grandmasters would always end in
draws). This threat of "draw death" for chess was his main motivation for creating a more complex version of the game.
* The
archbishop
In Christian denominations, an archbishop is a bishop of higher rank or office. In most cases, such as the Catholic Church, there are many archbishops who either have jurisdiction over an ecclesiastical province in addition to their own archdi ...
combines powers of a
bishop
A bishop is an ordained clergy member who is entrusted with a position of authority and oversight in a religious institution.
In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance of dioceses. The role or office of bishop is ca ...
and a
knight
A knight is a person granted an honorary title of knighthood by a head of state (including the Pope) or representative for service to the monarch, the church or the country, especially in a military capacity. Knighthood finds origins in the Gr ...
.
* The
chancellor
Chancellor ( la, cancellarius) is a title of various official positions in the governments of many nations. The original chancellors were the of Roman courts of justice—ushers, who sat at the or lattice work screens of a basilica or law cou ...
combines powers of a
rook
Rook (''Corvus frugilegus'') is a bird of the corvid family. Rook or rooks may also refer to:
Games
*Rook (chess), a piece in chess
*Rook (card game), a trick-taking card game
Military
* Sukhoi Su-25 or Rook, a close air support aircraft
* USS ...
and a
knight
A knight is a person granted an honorary title of knighthood by a head of state (including the Pope) or representative for service to the monarch, the church or the country, especially in a military capacity. Knighthood finds origins in the Gr ...
.
The new pieces allow new strategies and possibilities that change the game. For example, the archbishop by itself can checkmate a lone king in the corner (when placed diagonally with one square in between).
Setup and rules
![Capablanca-chess-newpieces](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e4/Capablanca-chess-newpieces.jpg)
Capablanca proposed two opening setups for Capablanca chess. His final revision placed the archbishop between the and ; the chancellor between the and . The king moves three squares when
castling
Castling is a move in chess. It consists of moving the king two squares toward a rook on the same and then moving the rook to the square that the king passed over. Castling is permitted only if neither the king nor the rook has previously moved ...
instead of moving two squares as in standard chess. A pawn can
promote to archbishop or chancellor in addition to the regular promotion options in standard chess.
Unlike orthodox chess, each king, instead of each queen, starts on a square of its own color (the white king on a light square; the black king on a dark square).
Capablanca also experimented with a 10×10 board size with a different initial setup and where pawns could advance up to three squares on their first move.
Edward Lasker
Edward Lasker (born Eduard Lasker) (December 3, 1885 – March 25, 1981) was a German-American chess and Go player. He was awarded the title of International Master of chess by FIDE. Lasker was an engineer by profession, and an author of ...
wrote:
... I played many test games with Capablanca, and they rarely lasted more than twenty or twenty-five moves. We tried boards of 10×10 squares and 10×8 squares, and we concluded that the latter was preferable because hand-to-hand fights start earlier on it.
Lasker was one of the few supporters. Hungarian
grandmaster Géza Maróczy
Géza Maróczy (; 3 March 1870 – 29 May 1951) was a Hungarian chess player, one of the leading players in the world in his time. He was one of the inaugural recipients of the title International Grandmaster from FIDE in 1950.
Early career
G ...
also played some games with Capablanca (who got the better of him). British champion
William Winter thought that there were too many strong pieces, making the less relevant.
The new piece names ''archbishop'' (originally named chancellor) and ''chancellor'' (originally named marshall, followed by marshal) were introduced by Capablanca himself. These names are still used in most modern variants of Capablanca Chess.
Variants of Capablanca chess
Predating Capablanca chess
Capablanca was not the first person to add the archbishop and the chancellor to the normal chess set, though he is the most famous. Other attempts mostly differ only by the arrangement of pieces and the castling rules.
In 1617,
Pietro Carrera
Pietro Carrera (July 12, 1573 – September 18, 1647) was an Italian chess player, historian, priest and author.
Biography
Pietro Carrera born in Sicily, in Militello in Val di Catania (Province of Catania), located in the Valley of Noto; here ...
published a book ''Il Gioco degli Scacchi'', which contained a description of a chess variant played on an 8×10 board. He placed new pieces between a rook and a knight. Archbishop was on the and chancellor on the . It is highly probable that his primary motivation for the design was the limitations of
opening theory in this time and he was not as concerned with avoiding structural weaknesses in the new game’s starting position created by a potential new piece standing on a given file, as with the Archbishop between the knight and the rook leaving its own pawn unprotected. Carrera used the names ''Centauro'' (centaur) instead of archbishop, and ''Campione'' (champion) instead of chancellor.
In 1874,
Henry Bird proposed a chess variant similar to Carrera's variant. The only significant difference was the opening setup. The new pieces were now between the bishops and the royal pair, the archbishop close to the king, the chancellor close to the queen. The queen's bishop's pawn is not protected in the initial setup. Bird used the names ''equerry'' instead of archbishop, and ''guard'' instead of chancellor. The theoretical benefit of this setup is that the new pieces’ pawns are thus very important to the opening theory of the game, equally to the king’s and queen's pawns. This makes the chancellor‘s pawn a pair for the queen's pawn as leading to a more strategically oriented game from the nature of the chancellor.
Postdating Capablanca chess
Capablanca chess has inspired a number of variants:
* Universal chess (1928) by Dr. Bruno Violet (on 10×10 board). He proposed two arrangements.
*
Grand Chess
Grand Chess is a large-board chess variant invented by Dutch games designer Christian Freeling in 1984. It is played on a 10×10 board, with each side having two additional pawns and two new pieces: the ''marshal'' and the ''cardinal''.
* The ...
(1984) by
Christian Freeling
Christian Freeling (born 1 February 1947, in Enschede, Netherlands) is a Dutch game designer and inventor of abstract strategy games, notably Dameo, Grand Chess, Havannah, and Hexdame.
Freeling's designs cover a range of game types. Several of ...
* Gothic chess (2000) by Edward A. Trice
* Aberg's variation (2003) by Hans Aberg
* Capablanca random chess (2004) by Reinhard Scharnagl
* Grotesque chess (2004) by Fergus Duniho
* Paulovich's variation (2004) by David Paulovich
* Ladorean chess (2005) by Bernhard U. Hermes
*
Embassy chess
Grand Chess is a large-board chess variant invented by Dutch games designer Christian Freeling in 1984. It is played on a 10×10 board, with each side having two additional pawns and two new pieces: the ''marshal'' and the ''cardinal''.
* The ...
(2005) by Kevin Hill
* Univers chess (2006) by Fergus Duniho
* Schoolbook chess (2006) by Sam Trenholme
* Victorian chess (2007) by John K. Lewis
* Modern Capablanca random chess (2008) by José Carrillo
Several chess variants postdating Capablanca chess were designed with initial arrangements where all pawns are protected by at least one piece; these include Universal chess, Grand chess, Gothic chess, Grotesque chess, Ladorean chess, Schoolbook chess, and Univers chess which adopted the starting lineup of Universal chess and used it on a 10×8 board, and Embassy chess which uses a starting position identical to Grand Chess adapted to a 10×8 board.
Aberg's variation has the same setup as the historic ancestor Carrera's chess. Aberg followed Murray's description, which was wrong, and invented a new game by switching the archbishop and the chancellor, thus reaching exactly the setup proposed by the 17th century Italian master.
In 2004, David Paulowich proposed an arrangement that was included in ChessV as ''Capablanca Chess, Paulowich Variant''. John Kipling Lewis re-invented it independently in 2007, giving it the name of Victorian Chess.
Capablanca random chess applies the concept of
Fischer random chess
Fischer random chess, also known as Chess960 (often read in this context as 'chess nine-sixty' instead of 'chess nine hundred sixty'), is a variation of the game of chess invented by the former world chess champion Bobby Fischer. Fischer announ ...
to Capablanca chess, except with additional restrictions for the starting setup:
* All pawns in the starting positions must be protected by at least one piece.
* Bishops cannot start on neighboring squares.
* The queen and the archbishop must start at opposite-colored squares.
* The starting position cannot be that of Gothic chess.
In total, there are 12,118 starting positions in Capablanca random chess.
Using a different board
Some variants of Capablanca Chess do not use the standard 10×8 board. For example,
grand chess
Grand Chess is a large-board chess variant invented by Dutch games designer Christian Freeling in 1984. It is played on a 10×10 board, with each side having two additional pawns and two new pieces: the ''marshal'' and the ''cardinal''.
* The ...
, a popular variant invented by Dutch game designer
Christian Freeling
Christian Freeling (born 1 February 1947, in Enschede, Netherlands) is a Dutch game designer and inventor of abstract strategy games, notably Dameo, Grand Chess, Havannah, and Hexdame.
Freeling's designs cover a range of game types. Several of ...
in 1984, uses Capablanca chess pieces on a 10×10 board. The layout allows the rooks early mobility.
Seirawan chess
Seirawan chess is a Capablanca chess variant by
Yasser Seirawan
Yasser Seirawan ( ar, ياسر سيروان; born March 24, 1960) is a Syrian-born American chess grandmaster and four-time United States champion. He won the World Junior Chess Championship in 1979. Seirawan is also a published chess author an ...
and Bruce Harper that uses a standard 8x8 chess board. The initial position is that of standard
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 disti ...
. Each side has additionally two pieces in hand (called a hawk and an elephant in Seirawan Chess):
*
![Chess cll44](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/04/Chess_cll44.png)
The
elephant
Elephants are the largest existing land animals. Three living species are currently recognised: the African bush elephant, the African forest elephant, and the Asian elephant. They are the only surviving members of the family Elephantidae an ...
, moves as a
rook
Rook (''Corvus frugilegus'') is a bird of the corvid family. Rook or rooks may also refer to:
Games
*Rook (chess), a piece in chess
*Rook (card game), a trick-taking card game
Military
* Sukhoi Su-25 or Rook, a close air support aircraft
* USS ...
or a
knight
A knight is a person granted an honorary title of knighthood by a head of state (including the Pope) or representative for service to the monarch, the church or the country, especially in a military capacity. Knighthood finds origins in the Gr ...
; (this piece is better known as
Chancellor or Empress) and
*
![Chess all44](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9f/Chess_all44.png)
The
hawk
Hawks are bird of prey, birds of prey of the family Accipitridae. They are widely distributed and are found on all continents except Antarctica.
* The subfamily Accipitrinae includes goshawks, sparrowhawks, sharp-shinned hawks and others. Th ...
, moves as a
bishop
A bishop is an ordained clergy member who is entrusted with a position of authority and oversight in a religious institution.
In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance of dioceses. The role or office of bishop is ca ...
or a
knight
A knight is a person granted an honorary title of knighthood by a head of state (including the Pope) or representative for service to the monarch, the church or the country, especially in a military capacity. Knighthood finds origins in the Gr ...
. (this piece is better known as
Archbishop or Princess).
The elephant and the hawk are introduced to the game in the following way: whenever the player moves a
piece
Piece or Pieces (not to be confused with peace) may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Games
* Piece (chess), pieces deployed on a chessboard for playing the game of chess
* ''Pieces'' (video game), a 1994 puzzle game for the Super NES
* P ...
(king, queen, knight, bishop or rook) from its starting position (that hasn't already been moved), one of the pieces in hand may be placed immediately on the square just vacated. One cannot use the placing of an elephant or hawk to block
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 ...
. If the player moves all his pieces from the first
rank
Rank is the relative position, value, worth, complexity, power, importance, authority, level, etc. of a person or object within a ranking, such as:
Level or position in a hierarchical organization
* Academic rank
* Diplomatic rank
* Hierarchy
* H ...
without placing one or both in hand pieces, he forfeits the right to do so. After
castling
Castling is a move in chess. It consists of moving the king two squares toward a rook on the same and then moving the rook to the square that the king passed over. Castling is permitted only if neither the king nor the rook has previously moved ...
, the player may put one of the pieces in hand on either the
king's or the rook's square, but he may not place both pieces in hand in the same turn. Pawns may
promote to a hawk or an elephant in this game (in addition to the normal
chess piece
A chess piece, or chessman, is a game piece that is placed on a chessboard to play the game of chess. It can be either White and Black in chess, white or black, and it can be one of six types: King (chess), king, Queen (chess), queen, Rook (chess ...
s).
When notating games in
algebraic notation, the letter E is used for the Elephant and H for the Hawk. If the player places one of the two pieces on the board, it is written after a
slash
Slash may refer to:
* Slash (punctuation), the "/" character
Arts and entertainment Fictional characters
* Slash (Marvel Comics)
* Slash (''Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles'')
Music
* Harry Slash & The Slashtones, an American rock band
* Nash ...
. For example, 1. Nc3/E means that the player moved his knight from b1 to c3 and placed the elephant on b1.
Strategy
H. G. Muller suggested the following estimated piece values:
Programs that play Capablanca chess
*
ChessV
ChessV (short for Chess Variants) is a free computer program designed to play many chess variants.
''ChessV'' is an open-source, universal chess variant program with a graphical user-interface, sophisticated AI, support for opening books and ot ...
*
Fairy-Max
Fairy-Max is a free and open source chess engine which can play orthodox chess as well as chess variants. Among its features is the ability of users to define and use their own custom variant chess pieces for use in games.
Fairy-Max was derived ...
Fairy Stockfish
References
Bibliography
*
*
*
*
*
Further reading
* (extensive history)
External links
by
Hans Bodlaender
Hans Leo Bodlaender (born April 21, 1960) is a Dutch computer scientist, a professor of computer science at Utrecht University. Bodlaender is known for his work on graph algorithms and parameterized complexity and in particular for algorithms relat ...
, ''
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". ...
''
*
Capablanca 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 List ...
)PyChess Websiteonline play (real time with digital clocks)
{{Chess variants, state=collapsed
Board games introduced in the 1920s
Chess variants