Handicap play is more common in Go than in Chess. One reason is that the stronger player can naturally give a handicap by passing their first n turns.
The ranking system helps determine the correct handicap; a 5 dan player would give 3 handicap to a 2 dan player for instance, and 5 stones to a 1 kyu player.
Many Go tournaments, especially smaller ones that see a lot of spread in strengths within the kyu ranks, use handicap to make for more even sided games.
Oh that’s a fun mechanic. Interesting that you could just win outright if your chess opponent gave you five free moves out the gate. Maybe for chess you could add the proviso, “x free moves but you can’t move into a position where your piece is threatened”
Non-standard pre-arranged boards would be a lot of fun. Anything that gets rid of the opening memorization thing would make it a vastly more fun game to play. The boards could be made asymmetrical for handicap. Maybe chess engines could even generate random starting positions given some target material or positional strength for black and white.
Anything that gets rid of the opening memorization thing would make it a vastly more fun game to play.
Chess can still be fun even if you don't have much theory onboard. You don't have to play the Grünfeld. Just play "theory-lite" openings like the London, and learn as you go.
I learned London but quickly got bored of it. I would win when I knew the perfect response to the move my opponent played and lose when I didn't. Games turned into a collection of "if opponent plays this, then play that" rules and my mind was a computer applying those rules.
Truth is I seriously hate memorizing anything. Maybe chess just isn't the game for me.
Comments
Handicap play is more common in Go than in Chess. One reason is that the stronger player can naturally give a handicap by passing their first n turns. The ranking system helps determine the correct handicap; a 5 dan player would give 3 handicap to a 2 dan player for instance, and 5 stones to a 1 kyu player. Many Go tournaments, especially smaller ones that see a lot of spread in strengths within the kyu ranks, use handicap to make for more even sided games.
Oh that’s a fun mechanic. Interesting that you could just win outright if your chess opponent gave you five free moves out the gate. Maybe for chess you could add the proviso, “x free moves but you can’t move into a position where your piece is threatened”
Non-standard pre-arranged boards would be a lot of fun. Anything that gets rid of the opening memorization thing would make it a vastly more fun game to play. The boards could be made asymmetrical for handicap. Maybe chess engines could even generate random starting positions given some target material or positional strength for black and white.
Fischer Random Chess sounds like something for you: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fischer_random_chess
That's really cool. Looks like lichess supports it too... I'll give it a shot.
Chess can still be fun even if you don't have much theory onboard. You don't have to play the Grünfeld. Just play "theory-lite" openings like the London, and learn as you go.
I learned London but quickly got bored of it. I would win when I knew the perfect response to the move my opponent played and lose when I didn't. Games turned into a collection of "if opponent plays this, then play that" rules and my mind was a computer applying those rules.
Truth is I seriously hate memorizing anything. Maybe chess just isn't the game for me.