Capablanca Chess

Capablanca chess (or Capablanca's chess) is a chess variant invented in the 1920s by former World Chess Champion José Raúl Capablanca. It incorporates two new pieces and is played on a 10×8 board. Capablanca proposed the variant while World Champion, and not as a "sour grapes" rationalization after losing his title as some critics have asserted. He believed that chess would be played out in a few decades and games between grandmasters would always end in draws. The threat of "draw death" for chess was his main motivation for creating a more complex and richer version of the game.

  • The chancellor combines powers of a rook and a knight.
  • The archbishop combines powers of a bishop and a knight.

The new pieces have properties that enrich the game. For example, the archbishop by itself can checkmate a lone king (king in a corner, archbishop placed diagonally with one square in between).

Read more about Capablanca Chess:  Setup of The Pieces

Famous quotes containing the word chess:

    Of all my Russian books, The Defense contains and diffuses the greatest “warmth”Mwhich may seem odd seeing how supremely abstract chess is supposed to be.
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