Dice Chess - Variants On These Rules

Variants On These Rules

There is no standard set of rules for Dice Chess, and so games called 'Dice Chess' may have different rules to the ones given here.

For example, in the version of 'dice chess' given on the BrainKing site:

• The players roll only one die.
• Pawns may move from the seventh to the eighth rank on any roll, but may promote only to the piece shown on the die (a one allows a pawn to promote to any piece).
• There is no check or checkmate. Rather, the goal is to actually capture the king.

BrainKing also provides a variant on 10x10 board with three kings on each side. To win you need to capture all enemy kings. All other rules are the same as for 8x8 version. The intention of adding two more kings is to reduce the elements of chance in the game.

Another form of dice chess is "Vegas Fun Chess", whose rules are described here. That site also indicates that "Pritchard's Encyclopedia of Chess Variants contains descriptions of seven versions of what he calls 'Dice Chess'."

John Gollon, in his book Chess Variations: Ancient, Regional, and Modern, notes three ways in which dice may be used in connection with a game of chess. The most common is similar to that described in the preceding sections. A second way to use dice is to have each player roll one die on each turn, with the number rolled indicating the number of moves to be played. The maximum number of moves that can be played is usually four, so a roll of a four, five, or six allows the player to make four moves. A third form of the game uses two dice of contrasting colors, with one determining the piece that can move, and the other the number of moves that the piece makes.