The Gustavian chessboard

Date: 30 Nov 2008 12:27:15
From: M Winther
Subject: The Gustavian chessboard

King Gustav III of Sweden invented this board (
http://hem.passagen.se/melki9/gustaviii.htm ) and placed Amazons in
the extra corners. But now I've found out that one can also leave the
corners empty and make only one change of rule, namely "extended
castling": when castling the king may jump three squares, but it can
also jump two as usual. The rook ends up on its usual square. The
extended castle makes play on the wings easier to achieve. The
king can rapidly take control over the kingside or queenside corner
square. When launching an attack on the wing, the extra corner square
is very convenient, while the king can hide there, and move the pawns
without compromising its position. Read more here:
http://hem.passagen.se/melki9/adjutantchess1.htm

Mats

PS. This is not an attempt at vanquishing chess and ostracizing all
traditional chessplayers, etc., etc. It is merely an interesting proposal to
make the chessplayer's life more colourful. DS.

Date: 30 Nov 2008 08:58:56
From:
Subject: Re: The Gustavian chessboard

On Nov 30, 6:27=A0am, "M Winther" <[email protected] > wrote:
> King Gustav III of Sweden invented this board (http://hem.passagen.se/mel=
ki9/gustaviii.htm) and placed Amazons in
> the extra corners. But now I've found out that one can also leave the
> corners empty and make only one change of rule, namely "extended
> castling": when castling the king may jump three squares, but it can
> also jump two as usual. The rook ends up on its usual square. The
> extended castle makes play on the wings easier to achieve. The
> king can rapidly take control over the kingside or queenside corner
> square. When launching an attack on the wing, the extra corner square
> is very convenient, while the king can hide there, and move the pawns
> without compromising its position. Read more here:http://hem.passagen.se/=
melki9/adjutantchess1.htm
>
> Mats
>
> PS. This is not an attempt at vanquishing chess and ostracizing all
> traditional chessplayers, etc., etc. It is merely an interesting proposal=
to
> make the chessplayer's life more colourful. DS.

An interesting variant, all the more so, in my opinion, for being
relatively conservative, and not radically different from orthodox
chess. In the variant where the extra corner squares are empty, is
there any statistical evidence suggesting whether checkmate is much
more difficult?
One minor suggestion for your gustav chess web-page. In the sentence
"Gustav was shot and deadly wounded in a plot conceived by hostile
nobles," change "deadly" to "fatally" or "mortally." Unlike most
English words ending in -ly, deadly is an adjective, not an adverb.

Date: 30 Nov 2008 19:22:12
From: M Winther
Subject: Re: The Gustavian chessboard

Den 2008-11-30 17:58:56 skrev <[email protected] >:

> On Nov 30, 6:27�am, "M Winther" <[email protected]> wrote:
>> King Gustav III of Sweden invented this board
>> ( http://hem.passagen.se/melki9/gustaviii.htm) and placed Amazons in
>> the extra corners. But now I've found out that one can also leave the
>> corners empty and make only one change of rule, namely "extended
>> castling": when castling the king may jump three squares, but it can
>> also jump two as usual. The rook ends up on its usual square. The
>> extended castle makes play on the wings easier to achieve. The
>> king can rapidly take control over the kingside or queenside corner
>> square. When launching an attack on the wing, the extra corner square
>> is very convenient, while the king can hide there, and move the pawns
>> without compromising its position. Read more here:
>> http://hem.passagen.se/melki9/adjutantchess1.htm
>>
>> Mats
>>
>> PS. This is not an attempt at vanquishing chess and ostracizing all
>> traditional chessplayers, etc., etc. It is merely an interesting proposal to
>> make the chessplayer's life more colourful. DS.
>
> An interesting variant, all the more so, in my opinion, for being
> relatively conservative, and not radically different from orthodox
> chess. In the variant where the extra corner squares are empty, is
> there any statistical evidence suggesting whether checkmate is much
> more difficult?
> One minor suggestion for your gustav chess web-page. In the sentence
> "Gustav was shot and deadly wounded in a plot conceived by hostile
> nobles," change "deadly" to "fatally" or "mortally." Unlike most
> English words ending in -ly, deadly is an adjective, not an adverb.
>

Taylor,

Thanks for the English correction. Of course, I haven't tested this
extensively, but a weakness on the long diagonal is now much less
dangerous. A party could even exchange his fianchetto king's bishop
against a knight and escape with the king to the extra square, and
even if the opponent has a bishop and a queen on the long diagonal,
the king would be protected (provided that the first rank is
protected). On the other hand, a weakness along the diagonal to h7 and
h2, down to the extra square, is now more dangerous than before.

But the central point is that mate must now be more common because the
strategy can be less cautious. It's now much more likely that the
g-pawn will move two steps. After all, in Fide-chess, this move is
generally catastrophic, although one cannot resist doing it in blitz
games. This has enormous strategical consequences, and bloody battles
on the king's wing will ensue. The extra square could have some
significance to the knight, also, as a maneuver square.

(I downloaded an update to the Adjutant Chess program just now).

Mats

Date: 30 Nov 2008 19:22:12
From: M Winther
Subject: Re: The Gustavian chessboard