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Chancellor Chess. On a 9 by 9 or 9 by 8 board with a piece with combined rook and knight moves. (9x9, Cells: 81) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
George Duke wrote on Mon, May 14, 2018 06:26 AM UTC:

Bird in the 1870s and then Capablanca in 1920s get mention for re-using the Carrera pieces of RN and BN.

Ben Foster designed this 9x9 in the 1880s Chancellor Chess with RN and supported the invention with history and problems.   The first link has text from the beginning of the 1889 book. It cites Carrera from the 1610s and Duke of Rutland from the 1740s.

"Steam was old, gravity was old, electricity was old, and printing was old, when Watt, and Newton, and Morse, and Gutenburg applied them respectively for the benefit of mankind." -- 'Chancellor Chess' book 1889

Also there: "weary of the old and monotonous debuts" and "seemingly ugly but very powerful chess piece," and "every player for a while will be put on his own resources."


Jose Carrillo wrote on Wed, Feb 13, 2008 07:05 PM UTC:
What's the correct link for the Chancellor Chess preset for Game Courrier?

I found the Chancellor game log below:
/play/pbm/play.php?game=Chancellor+Chess&log=judgmentality-cvgameroom-2006-86-980

but I can't find the preset link in Game Courier to start a new game.

The link is also not on the alphabetic index of presets.

Sam Trenholme wrote on Thu, Jul 12, 2007 07:36 PM UTC:
It's a very interesting question about what is more valuable: Dragon King (Rook + King; OK, rook + ferz) or Archbishop. Both can checkmate the king with the help of the king, though the mate with the Archbishop is more difficult. Were Greg Strong to introduce this piece to ChessV, making it as valuable as an Archbishop is probably a good starting point. It's pretty obvious the Archbishop is worth more than the Shogi Horse (Bishop + King; OK Bishop + Wazir) piece, since the Archibishop has eight more additional moves than the bishop, but the Shogi Horse only has four additional moves.

Derek Nalls wrote on Thu, Jul 12, 2007 03:27 PM UTC:
C-R-N-B-Q-K-B-N-R-C  mirror I
C-R-N-B-K-Q-B-N-R-C  mirror II

The problem with opening setups where both chancellors are placed upon outer files is that, compared to those where both chancellors are placed upon inner files, king safety is deficient.

Powerful, composite pieces such as the chancellor can contribute markedly to king safety [which is vitally important!] and yield higher, measured values for king safety than typical in standard Chess (by comparison) but only IF they are close enough to the king to help protect its 3 adjacent pawns.

In your proposed opening setup (mirror I), the diagonally adjacent pawn to the NE of white's king (for reference) has only 1 backup.  With 18-22 pawn backups available (depending upon the particular opening setup) to be distributed for 10 pawns, an average of appr. 2.0 backups per pawn exists.  Consequently, I consider a figure of appr. 1/2 of average to be unacceptable- too low for any pawn diagonally adjacent to the king in this class of games.

For an opening setup, its rapid transition to a solid development phase and smooth play characteristics are of secondary importance to its stability.

David Paulowich wrote on Thu, Jul 12, 2007 01:59 PM UTC:Good ★★★★
On 8x8 and 10x8 and 10x10 boards, I estimate: 
[1] Archbishop (moves like Bishop or Knight)
[2] Dragon King (moves like Rook or Ferz)
[3] Bishop and Knight and Pawn
to have the same value.  My opinions have not changed much 
since my [2006-08-12] comment on the SHAKO Page.  I may not 
always be right, but I am consistent!

Sam Trenholme wrote on Thu, Jul 12, 2007 07:28 AM UTC:
For Chancellor chess, I like the CRNBQKBNRC opening setup myself. The thing I don't like about 'Univers Chess' setups, like RBNCQKANBR (Univers chess), and the Chancellor setup you propose, is the the bishops face each other in the opening, making it more likely to be early bishop exchanges. This is somewhat offset, however, by the knight being able to block the diagonal in question. But, then again, the natural square for the knight blocks the bishop's primary diagonal, making both pieces harder to develop.

One interesting variant is one where we have one chancellor and two queens. Then the following setups look interesting: RNQBCKBQNR and RQNBCKBNQR, with me preferring the second setup, since the knights are more likely to be used.

Of course, it may make more sense to have, on an 8x10 board, no queen, an Archbishop, and then, from Shogi, have a 'Dragon' (Rook + King) and a Horse (Bishop + King) piece. Here, the archbishop is the most valuable piece, and the power balance on the board may be better. One possible opening setup is RHNBAKBNDR.


Derek Nalls wrote on Thu, Jul 12, 2007 06:02 AM UTC:
I did a complete study of all select opening setups with minimized asymmetry upon the 8H X 10W board using the 'Chancellor Chess piece set'.  I am referring to games designed with an architecture analogous to how Janus Chess and Archbishop Chess are based upon 2 archbishops but with 2 chancellors instead.

I discovered this to be the single, most stable opening setup possible:

R-B-N-C-Q-K-C-N-B-R  mirror I
R-B-N-C-K-Q-C-N-B-R  mirror II

I will name it 'Chancellor Chess 8H x 10W' and post it to the ZOG web site soon.

M Winther wrote on Tue, May 29, 2007 07:38 AM UTC:BelowAverage ★★
The reason why this form of 9x9 variant will never become popular is because it's too slow, and that's why it's difficult for white to develop an initiative, something which makes the game drawish. Should the Chancellors be exchanged, then it's nothing but a slow and drawish standard chess. This is, however, better than Maura's Modern Chess in that the black squared bishops are retained. Horne's proposal, where the game is played on a 9 by 8 board, is better I suppose.
/Mats

George Duke wrote on Sat, Jan 29, 2005 06:10 PM UTC:Good ★★★★
'ABCLargeCV': Never commented since posted 8 yrs. ago, Chancellor Chess studies were devised by the American problemist par excellence Sam Loyd(1841-1911) around the turn of the 20th century. Puerto Rican Gabriel Maura's Modern Chess also has 9x9 embodiment, invented in 1960's, but has 'Minister'(B+N) rather than Foster's 'Chancellor'(R+N).

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