Panic chess

Panic chess is a chess variant proposed by Kacper Oreszczuk in 2021. The game is played using the standard chess pieces and board, but the pieces are in a state of "panic" and perform actions with an element of chance. Players decide which piece to move but have limited control over the target square.

Game rules

	a	b	c	d	e	f	g	h
8									8
7									7
6									6
5									5
4									4
3									3
2									2
1									1
	a	b	c	d	e	f	g	h

Example position: White developed queen early by capturing the black bishop. Black can move the knight from g8, which will land on f6 or h6, attacking the queen regardless of the outcome. The queen cannot retreat because capturing of the g7 pawn is the only possibility.

Instead of capturing the bishop with the queen, white could have moved the knight from g1, either blocking the bishop's attack on the queen or moving to h3, thus adding another possibility for capture with the bishop, decreasing the chance of losing the queen to 50%.

Panic chess follows the rules of standard chess with the following changes:

• Players select the piece to move, but the target square is chosen randomly with the following rules:
  • If a piece has a capture among legal moves, it captures a randomly chosen piece.
  • Otherwise, if the king was selected and there is at least one friendly piece on board, then the king will move to a randomly chosen square that is not attacked by any of the opponent's pieces (if such squares exist).
  • Otherwise, a random legal move is made.
  • Players must select a piece that has at least one legal move.
• The objective is to capture the opponent's king.
• Moving king under check or staying in check is considered legal.
• When a pawn achieves the last rank, the promotion is chosen randomly.
• Game can end with a draw in the following cases:
  • Both players agree to a draw;
  • One of the players claims a draw unilaterally after 50 moves without a capture;
  • A stalemate occurs.
• Castling is permissible even if the king is or will be in check before or after castling, or if the king passes through an attacked square.

References

This article "Panic chess" is from Wikipedia. The list of its authors can be seen in its historical and/or the page Edithistory:Panic chess. Articles copied from Draft Namespace on Wikipedia could be seen on the Draft Namespace of Wikipedia and not main one.

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