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Hostage chess
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Hostage chess
Hostage chess is a chess variant invented by John A. Leslie in 1997. Captured pieces are not eliminated from the game but can reenter active play through drops, similar to shogi. Unlike shogi, the piece a player may drop is one of their own pieces previously captured by the opponent. In exchange, the player returns a previously captured enemy piece which the opponent may drop on a future turn. This is the characteristic feature of the game.
Hostage chess has tactical subtlety and "tends to favour the attacker". In 1999, David Pritchard called the game "the variant of the decade". It was published in magazines Nost-algia (issue 375), Eteroscacco (86–88), and Variant Chess (32 and later). It was the "Recognized Variant of the Month" in January 2005 at The Chess Variant Pages.
Hostage chess follows all the standard rules of chess excepting how captured men are treated. Each player owns reserved spaces off the chessboard: a prison to the player's right, and an airfield to the player's left. There should be a clear boundary between each player's prison and the other player's airfield. Captured men are not removed from the game but are held in the capturer's prison. Instead of making a normal move, a player can perform a hostage exchange to "rescue" a man held prisoner by the opponent and drop the freed man back into play on the board onto an open square. The man exchanged for the dropped man is transferred from the player's prison to the opponent's airfield. On any turn, instead of making a normal move, a player can drop a man from his airfield into active play on the board.
A hostage exchange is performed by transferring a piece from one's prison to the opponent's airfield, then selecting and releasing a piece from the opponent's prison and immediately dropping it onto an empty square on the board. The drop completes the turn. The piece transferred must be of equal or greater value than the piece released from prison and dropped. The relative piece values are: Q > R > B = N > P. (So, any piece can be exchanged to free a pawn; whereas only a queen can be exchanged to free a queen.) A hostage exchange cannot be refused by the opponent.
A drop can occur as part of a hostage exchange, or directly from a player's airfield. The square dropped to must be unoccupied. Additional drop rules:
A pawn can promote only to a Q, R, B, or N that is available in the opponent's prison. The promoting player selects which piece to release and promote to; the pawn is transferred to the opponent's prison. If the promoted piece is subsequently captured, it retains the type that it had when entering prison.
So, if a pawn is on its player's 7th rank with no available piece to promote to:
According to David Pritchard:
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Hostage chess AI simulator
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Hostage chess
Hostage chess is a chess variant invented by John A. Leslie in 1997. Captured pieces are not eliminated from the game but can reenter active play through drops, similar to shogi. Unlike shogi, the piece a player may drop is one of their own pieces previously captured by the opponent. In exchange, the player returns a previously captured enemy piece which the opponent may drop on a future turn. This is the characteristic feature of the game.
Hostage chess has tactical subtlety and "tends to favour the attacker". In 1999, David Pritchard called the game "the variant of the decade". It was published in magazines Nost-algia (issue 375), Eteroscacco (86–88), and Variant Chess (32 and later). It was the "Recognized Variant of the Month" in January 2005 at The Chess Variant Pages.
Hostage chess follows all the standard rules of chess excepting how captured men are treated. Each player owns reserved spaces off the chessboard: a prison to the player's right, and an airfield to the player's left. There should be a clear boundary between each player's prison and the other player's airfield. Captured men are not removed from the game but are held in the capturer's prison. Instead of making a normal move, a player can perform a hostage exchange to "rescue" a man held prisoner by the opponent and drop the freed man back into play on the board onto an open square. The man exchanged for the dropped man is transferred from the player's prison to the opponent's airfield. On any turn, instead of making a normal move, a player can drop a man from his airfield into active play on the board.
A hostage exchange is performed by transferring a piece from one's prison to the opponent's airfield, then selecting and releasing a piece from the opponent's prison and immediately dropping it onto an empty square on the board. The drop completes the turn. The piece transferred must be of equal or greater value than the piece released from prison and dropped. The relative piece values are: Q > R > B = N > P. (So, any piece can be exchanged to free a pawn; whereas only a queen can be exchanged to free a queen.) A hostage exchange cannot be refused by the opponent.
A drop can occur as part of a hostage exchange, or directly from a player's airfield. The square dropped to must be unoccupied. Additional drop rules:
A pawn can promote only to a Q, R, B, or N that is available in the opponent's prison. The promoting player selects which piece to release and promote to; the pawn is transferred to the opponent's prison. If the promoted piece is subsequently captured, it retains the type that it had when entering prison.
So, if a pawn is on its player's 7th rank with no available piece to promote to:
According to David Pritchard:
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