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Capablanca chess

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1a1 white rookb1 white knightc1 white princessd1 white bishope1 white queenf1 white kingg1 white bishoph1 white empressi1 white knightj1 white rook1
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Capablanca chess. Archbishop is placed between knight and bishop on the queen's side, chancellor on the king's side.

Capablanca chess is a chess variant that exists in several versions played on a board of either 10x10 or 10x8 squares. The game is named after its inventor, the former world chess champion, José Raúl Capablanca. Note that he proposed this complicated variant while he was world champion, not as sour grapes after losing his title, as some critics asserted. Capablanca thought that chess will be played out in a few decades. Games between chess grandmasters will always end in a draw. This danger of "draw death" was a main motivation for him to create a more complex and rich version of chess.

Besides usual set of chess pieces, each player has additionally two new pieces:

The new pieces have interesting properties and enrich the game. For example, the archbishop can checkmate a lone king by itself (king in a corner, archbishop placed diagonally with one square in between). Capablanca thought that adding these two powerful pieces would reduce the likelihood of a draw and make the game itself more interesting.

Ideas that predate Capablanca chess

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8a8 black rookb8 black princessc8 black knightd8 black bishope8 black queenf8 black kingg8 black bishoph8 black knighti8 black empressj8 black rook8
7a7 black pawnb7 black pawnc7 black pawnd7 black pawne7 black pawnf7 black pawng7 black pawnh7 black pawni7 black pawnj7 black pawn7
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1a1 white rookb1 white princessc1 white knightd1 white bishope1 white queenf1 white kingg1 white bishoph1 white knighti1 white empressj1 white rook1
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Carrera chess. Earliest chess variant on 8x10 board with archbishop and chancellor.

Capablanca was not the first person to suggest a similar variant of chess. In 1617, Pietro Carrera published a book Il Gioco degli Scacchi, which contained a description of a chess variant played on 8x10 board. He placed new pieces between a rook and a knight. Chancellor was on the king's side and archbishop on the queen's side. Carrera used names champion instead of chancellor and centaur instead of archbishop. The game was forgotten after the death of the inventor.

In 1874, Henry Bird proposed a chess variant similar to Carrera's variant. The only significant difference was the opening setup. The chancellor was placed between the queen's bishop and queen, and the archbishop was placed between the king's bishop and king. Bird used names guard for chancellor and equerry for archbishop.

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1a1 white rookb1 white knightc1 white bishopd1 white empresse1 white queenf1 white kingg1 white princessh1 white bishopi1 white knightj1 white rook1
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Bird's chess. Another predecessor of Capablanca chess.

Setup of the pieces

Capablanca proposed two opening setups for Capablanca's chess. In one opening setup, he proposed that the archbishop be placed between the bishop and the queen, and that the chancellor be placed between the king and the king's bishop. This setup has the flaw that it leaves the pawn in front of the king bishop undefended, allowing white to threaten mate on the first move with chancellor to bishop three (moving as a knight), followed by chancellor takes pawn (moving as a rook), which is checkmate (attacking the king as a knight).

Capablanca subsequently revised the opening setup so that the archbishop was between the queen's knight and bishop, and the chancellor was between the king's knight and bishop. He also experimented with 10x10 board sizes, where the pawns could move up to three squares on the initial move.

In his book, The Adventure of Chess, Edward Lasker writes (p.39): ...I played many test games with Capablanca, and they rarely lasted more than twenty or twenty-five moves. We tried boards of 10x10 squares and 10x8 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, and grandmaster Hungarian Geza Maroczy also played some games with Capablanca (who got the better of him). One of the few rational critics, British champion William Winter, thought that there were too many strong pieces, making the minor pieces less relevant.

The names for new pieces, archbishop and chancellor, were introduced by Capablanca himself. These names are still used in most modern variants of Capablanca chess.

Variants inspired by Capablanca chess

Capablanca chess has inspired a number of chess variants, the most popular of which are Grand chess and Gothic chess.

There were several other attempts to find an optimal starting position:

From these variations only Embassy chess gained some popularity so far. The initial setup in this variation is derived from that of Grand chess.

Another interesting recent development is Capablanca random chess, invented in 2004 by Reinhard Scharnagl. This game combines ideas of Fischer random chess and Capablanca chess. It also applies the sound principle which demands that in the starting position, all pawns are protected by at least one piece.

Homemade Archbishop (left) and Chancellor (right) pieces, built from readily available plastic pieces from standard chess sets.

See also

File:Addedpieces.png
The images for chancellor (left) and archbishop (right) in SMIRF.
  • ChessV - a program (licensed under the GPL) which plays Capablanca chess, Bird's chess, Grand chess and Carrera chess (as well as several other chess variants) against the computer.
  • SMIRF - a program which plays Capablanca chess and several of its variations, including Bird chess, Carrera chess and Capablanca random chess.

References

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