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Almost complete games - Chad

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Chad
Initial positionThe diagram shows the Chad board with the pieces in the initial position. The areas covered by the pieces are called the castles Each castle has twelve adjacent squares that together constitute the wall.
  • White begins. Players move, and must move, in turn.
  • The king is confined to his 3x3 castle. He may go and capture using either the king's move or the knight's move.
It's customary to look at the king in terms of the squares it does not cover. In the center it covers the whole castle, on the side it does not cover the square on the opposite side, and in the corner it does not cover the other corner squares.

  • The rook moves like the rook in Chess, unhindered by castles and walls. If it ends its move inside the opponent's castle, it is promoted to queen.
    The queen moves as the queen in Chess, unhindered by castles and walls

  • The mutual right of capture exists, and only exists, between an attacking piece on the wall and a defending piece inside the castle.
    Apart from this situation pieces simply block one another.

This is a crucial rule! It is illustrated in the next diagram. Black's castle shows a rook on the wall facing a defender inside. In such a situation both have the right to capture. However, in this specific situation only white can capture because the black rook is pinned! This position shows one of the basics of attack.
Initial position If it were white's turn he could checkmate in two, so let's assume it's black's turn. Let's also disregard the other pieces for a moment and assume the postion around black's castle is part of an actual position. What can black do?
Interposing a piece on any of the squares between the black rook and either of the white rooks, would parry the immediate threat. If this isn't possible, black's only option is to move the defending rook towards the pinning one. But this leaves a white rook on the wall attacking three squares inside the castle - literally a thorn in white's side.
Needless to say that the white rooks illustrate a basic attacking pattern. It appears in a variety of forms in almost all attacking concepts.

A related basic concept is the promotion sacrifice. It derives from the fact that an attacker, once it is inside the castle (and thus automatically a queen), can only be captured by the king.
A king on the side leaves one square unprotected, and a king in the corner three. The sacrifice of a piece to force the king to the side or into the corner, to clear the way for a second piece to promote on an unprotected square, is very common.
A queen is worth the sacrifice of a piece anytime! Its strength is illustrated in the same diagram: if it were black's move, the lone queen could checkmate the white king in just two moves.

In positional respect, a rook on a square diagonally adjacent to the enemy castle covers two segments of the wall. Needless to say these spots are popular. Finally, every attack eventually draws from defending forces, so an attack to checkmate should drive home. If it fails, 3-fold is one's only hope!

Applet
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download applet play online a word on notation		You can download this MindSports applet, which is tailored to save games played in the Pit, offline.

Chad was first published in 'The Gamer' (may-june 1982).

External links


Chad © MindSports
Java applet © Ed van Zon