The pawns as shield wall: how to better emulate the medieval battle situation • page 1/1 • General Chess Discussion • lichess.org

Pawns form a shield wall. That's why they cannot capture directly forwards, as they are blocked by a shield. Instead, they capture diagonally forwards, which was a typical method, also in the roman army. But there is a move missing, namely a push move. In the ancient and medieval battle situation, they tried to push the enemy shield wall back, to create a breach.

To emulate this we could introduce this rule: a pawn on the fourth or fifth rank can push back an enemy pawn that is placed before it, provided that the square behind the enemy pawn is empty. This push rule opens up many new tactical possibilities, especially in the endgame. Draws will occur less often. It is now more advantageous to have a blocked pawn on the fifth rank. Opening and middle game aren't much affected; but endings become more critical thanks to the new push move.

http://mlwi.magix.net/bg/pushpawnchess.htm

Pawns form a shield wall. That's why they cannot capture directly forwards, as they are blocked by a shield. Instead, they capture diagonally forwards, which was a typical method, also in the roman army. But there is a move missing, namely a push move. In the ancient and medieval battle situation, they tried to push the enemy shield wall back, to create a breach. To emulate this we could introduce this rule: a pawn on the fourth or fifth rank can push back an enemy pawn that is placed before it, provided that the square behind the enemy pawn is empty. This push rule opens up many new tactical possibilities, especially in the endgame. Draws will occur less often. It is now more advantageous to have a blocked pawn on the fifth rank. Opening and middle game aren't much affected; but endings become more critical thanks to the new push move. http://mlwi.magix.net/bg/pushpawnchess.htm

TheUnbreakable

#2

Only thing left to be introduced is dragons
Then there will be no chances of draw
Why draw when you can burn your opponent's king?

Only thing left to be introduced is dragons Then there will be no chances of draw Why draw when you can burn your opponent's king?

Lygodactylus

edited

#3

No, dragons won't be necessary. All that is needed to avoid that all games end in a draw (as in the last WCH between Carlsen and Caruana) is to add a new capacity to the pawn.

Koo8384 edited

#4

To be honest I love the current form of chess and would not prefer any change coz it would lose it's charm
...
And draws add to the beauty of chess

To be honest I love the current form of chess and would not prefer any change coz it would lose it's charm ... And draws add to the beauty of chess

tiny_bullet

#5

This is Chess not Battleground of Wars!

Lygodactylus

edited

#6

That's the tedious standard argument. Who cares about your preferences? Kramnik, together with the AlphaZero team, has investigated these 9 variants: http://mlwi.magix.net/bg/alphazero.htm

If Kramnik has started looking for alternatives, it must be due to slight frustration with the present rules. However, unlike the new pawn push rule, these aren't serious alternatives to standard chess.

That's the tedious standard argument. Who cares about your preferences? Kramnik, together with the AlphaZero team, has investigated these 9 variants: http://mlwi.magix.net/bg/alphazero.htm If Kramnik has started looking for alternatives, it must be due to slight frustration with the present rules. However, unlike the new pawn push rule, these aren't serious alternatives to standard chess.

Lygodactylus

#7

I added the rule that only a "connected" pawn can do the push move. This is a major improvement, which makes this a very serious contender against Fide-chess.