A Part for the Whole

In its full form, chess often appears as an unnecessarily high mountain. The work one must, compounded with the frustration of learning hiding behind repetition makes the game unwieldy and discouraging for most. For this reason, across the world of developing chess, specifically in some British schools, a variant on the game is being introduced, one with only 5 pieces and pawns for each side.

Upon hearing this, I was shocked such a thing even existed. But, this variant still seems to preserve the spirit of the game, with its complexity simply being reduced. And so, less appalled by this affront to chess, I considered what the simplest form of chess would be, without completely draining those aspects which make it still recognizable in chess. In other words, how much could I get rid of before chess lost its meaning.

To begin this, it is necessary to look to chess’s origins, with a lack of special moves like castling and en passant. Additionally, the bishop would only move one square in any direction, and pawns were limited to the sole one step forward (with the exception of captures) instead of having a jump start at the beginning of their lives.

Bishops and rooks were not needed, for the queen could easily mimic their actions. This meant that the only pieces I would need were a king, a queen and a knight. These three lonely pieces would each have one pawn for cover, and the board would be shrunk by a distance of 1 square from all sides to simplify the board but still allow ample room for strategy. Additionally, this bare-bones form of chess even allows for strategy in the placement of your pieces, and as such, maybe even heightens some of the strategic challenge of chess. Here are two possible starting positions:

The rules I developed are as follows:

1. The playing field is a 6 by 6 square of alternating colors
2. Placement of pieces rotates, with white placing first
3. Pawns may only move forward one step at a time
4. Pawns may only promote to a queen or a knight
5. All other applicable normal rules of chess are in effect

It is actually quite simple to play, but it still offers potential for a particularly motivated person to consistently beat one who lacks experience with the game. A sample game may be as follows:

//www.chess.com/emboard?id=5688170