Have today's chess rules attained perfection, or can they still be
improved in some way, leading to an enhanced variability? What would
happen if the castle move was modified? I suggest the following.

Extended castle: when castling the king may jump *three*
squares, but it can also jump two as usual. The rook ends up on its
usual square. In Chess with Extended Castle, queenside castle will
occur more often as this practically gains a tempo compared with
standard chess, where the king nearly always moves again to the knight
file. Certain opening systems might benefit from the extended castle,
such as the King's gambit, the Wienna Game, or the Dutch Defence.
Especially, the queenside castle systems in the Sicilian would be
improved.

Obviously, if this little rule change could infuse new life into the
King's gambit, then chess would benefit greatly.
http://hem.passagen.se/melki9/chesswithextended.htm

Mats

On Jul 3, 10:21*am, "M Winther" wrote:
Have today's chess rules attained perfection, or can they still be
improved in some way, leading to an enhanced variability? What would
happen if the castle move was modified? I suggest the following.

Extended castle: when castling the king may jump *three*
squares, but it can also jump two as usual. The rook ends up on its
usual square. In Chess with Extended Castle, queenside castle will
occur more often as this practically gains a tempo compared with
standard chess, where the king nearly always moves again to the knight
file. Certain opening systems might benefit from the extended castle,
such as the King's gambit, the Wienna Game, or the Dutch Defence.
Especially, the queenside castle systems in the Sicilian would be
improved.

Obviously, if this little rule change could infuse new life into the
King's gambit, then chess would benefit greatly.http://hem.passagen.se/melki9/chesswithextended.htm

Mats

Oh God, no extended castling, please! Allowing White's king to jump
immediately to b1 instead of c1 would probably invalidate many lines
of my favorite opening for Black, the Sicilian Defense.
A possible alternative: to counterbalance White's first-move
advantage, how about we allow extended castling for Black, but not for
White? Just an idea off the top of my head.

M Winther wrote:
Have today's chess rules attained perfection, or can they still be
improved in some way, leading to an enhanced variability? What would
happen if the castle move was modified?

Well, it's already happened. What you describe is a subset of so-called
free castling, which lingered in Italy to somewhere around the 1890s. There
were even the odd theory book that took the variability of the castling
into account.

Clearly it didn't survive.

--
Anders Thulin anders*thulin.name http://www.anders.thulin.name/

"Anders Thulin" skrev i meddelandet ...
M Winther wrote:
Have today's chess rules attained perfection, or can they still be
improved in some way, leading to an enhanced variability? What would
happen if the castle move was modified?

Well, it's already happened. What you describe is a subset of so-called
free castling, which lingered in Italy to somewhere around the 1890s. There
were even the odd theory book that took the variability of the castling
into account.

Clearly it didn't survive.

--
Anders Thulin


Interesting. I didn't know this. Maybe it didn't survive because "free
castling" allowed too much freedom. After all, chess is about foresight.

Anyway, there is a lopsidedness to today's rules. In practice, queenside
castle takes two moves, whereas kingside castle takes only one move.
What's the point in maintaining such an imparity? Why should kingside
castle be favoured before queenside castle?

Mats

"Taylor Kingston" skrev i meddelandet
...
On Jul 3, 10:21 am, "M Winther" wrote:
Have today's chess rules attained perfection, or can they still be
improved in some way, leading to an enhanced variability? What would
happen if the castle move was modified? I suggest the following.

Extended castle: when castling the king may jump *three*
squares, but it can also jump two as usual. The rook ends up on its
usual square. In Chess with Extended Castle, queenside castle will
occur more often as this practically gains a tempo compared with
standard chess, where the king nearly always moves again to the knight
file. Certain opening systems might benefit from the extended castle,
such as the King's gambit, the Wienna Game, or the Dutch Defence.
Especially, the queenside castle systems in the Sicilian would be
improved.

Obviously, if this little rule change could infuse new life into the
King's gambit, then chess would benefit greatly.
http://hem.passagen.se/melki9/chesswithextended.htm

Mats

Oh God, no extended castling, please! Allowing White's king to jump
immediately to b1 instead of c1 would probably invalidate many lines
of my favorite opening for Black, the Sicilian Defense.
A possible alternative: to counterbalance White's first-move
advantage, how about we allow extended castling for Black, but not for
White? Just an idea off the top of my head.

If you're thinking about the Sicilian Dragon, for instance, it would give white
a tempo, which would probably prove disastrous for black, but only if black
cannot make use of the kingside castle to the corner square.

On the other hand, many more sicilian variants would become playable for
white and black, where either party makes queenside castle. Some variants
will disappear, others will rise afresh.

Mats

On Jul 3, 2:44*pm, "M Winther" wrote:
"Taylor Kingston" skrev i ...
On Jul 3, 10:21 am, "M Winther" wrote:





Have today's chess rules attained perfection, or can they still be
improved in some way, leading to an enhanced variability? What would
happen if the castle move was modified? I suggest the following.

Extended castle: when castling the king may jump *three*
squares, but it can also jump two as usual. The rook ends up on its
usual square. In Chess with Extended Castle, queenside castle will
occur more often as this practically gains a tempo compared with
standard chess, where the king nearly always moves again to the knight
file. Certain opening systems might benefit from the extended castle,
such as the King's gambit, the Wienna Game, or the Dutch Defence.
Especially, the queenside castle systems in the Sicilian would be
improved.

Obviously, if this little rule change could infuse new life into the
King's gambit, then chess would benefit greatly.
http://hem.passagen.se/melki9/chesswithextended.htm

Mats
*Oh God, no extended castling, please! Allowing White's king to jump
immediately to b1 instead of c1 would probably invalidate many lines
of my favorite opening for Black, the Sicilian Defense.
A possible alternative: to counterbalance White's first-move
advantage, how about we allow extended castling for Black, but not for
White? Just an idea off the top of my head.

If you're thinking about the Sicilian Dragon, for instance, it would give white
a tempo, which would probably prove disastrous for black, but only if black
cannot make use of the kingside castle to the corner square.

I was indeed thinking of the Dragon, but also other Sicilian lines
in which White often castles Q-side while Black castles K-side: the
Richter-Rauzer, the Scheveningen, the Najdorf, etc. It's easy to see
how White gains from getting the king to b1 in a single move, but I
can think of few if any advantages for Black in getting the king to
h8. Especially in the Dragon, there are some lines where Black
retreats his KB to h8 to avoid exchanging it if White plays Bh6, so
Black would not want his king on h8.
As you point out above, extended K-side castling would be
advantageous mainly in lines where the f-pawn is advanced: the King's
and Vienna Gambits and the Dutch. Also Bird's Opening, the Stonewall
Attack, certain Dutch-like lines against the English, some lines of
the Colle/Colle-Zukertort/Torre Attack complex, and the Classical
Dragon when White plays 0-0 and f2-f4.


On the other hand, many more sicilian variants would become playable for
white and black, where either party makes queenside castle. Some variants
will disappear, others will rise afresh.

Mats- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

On Jul 3, 7:21*am, "M Winther" wrote:

Have today's chess rules attained perfection, [...]

In 1972 or perhaps earlier there was an
entire philological conference devoted
to the saying:

**** or get off the pot

So, stop your pseudo-philosophical and ideological
propaganda, and deliver at least one **interesting**
variation. Over years, I ran into several nice ideas
(why, I have invented or reinvented some
of them myself). Offhand let me mention two
(not mine):

Var 1:

in addition to the ordinary rules we have
one mo white can promote its pawns
on the seventh rank, and black on the second,
but not to a queen.

Var 2:

A move is a bit more complex procedure than in
the regular chess. When a standard move is made,
and it's not check, then the opponent can reject it,
and then another move is made.

There might be more to it. Check the Internet. (This
one I essentially reinvented at one time).

Wlod

"Taylor Kingston" skrev i meddelandet
...
On Jul 3, 2:44 pm, "M Winther" wrote:
"Taylor Kingston" skrev i
...
On Jul 3, 10:21 am, "M Winther" wrote:



I was indeed thinking of the Dragon, but also other Sicilian lines
in which White often castles Q-side while Black castles K-side: the
Richter-Rauzer, the Scheveningen, the Najdorf, etc. It's easy to see
how White gains from getting the king to b1 in a single move, but I
can think of few if any advantages for Black in getting the king to
h8. Especially in the Dragon, there are some lines where Black
retreats his KB to h8 to avoid exchanging it if White plays Bh6, so
Black would not want his king on h8.
As you point out above, extended K-side castling would be
advantageous mainly in lines where the f-pawn is advanced: the King's
and Vienna Gambits and the Dutch. Also Bird's Opening, the Stonewall
Attack, certain Dutch-like lines against the English, some lines of
the Colle/Colle-Zukertort/Torre Attack complex, and the Classical
Dragon when White plays 0-0 and f2-f4.


This will not bring the Sicilian Dragon to its knees because Black needn't
play the variation with 2....d6. He could play the 2...Nc6 system where
white cannot castle on the queenside.

Moreover, many new Sicilian systems will become playable where white
castles on the queenside, while black will avoid the Sicilian defenses that
lead to a white advantage thanks to the extended castle. So the Sicilian
will still live. Probably the Closed Sicilian will again rise to popularity,
while white plays f4 in these systems.

Mats