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This page is written by the game's inventor, Rich Hutnik.

Forwards Chess

Introduction

This game was created by lgrotmar on the SchemingMind.com website in 2008. 
It is like normal (FIDE) chess, except that pieces may not move backwards
or laterally.  A piece may deliver check backwards, however.

Setup

Same as in normal (FIDE) Chess.

Pieces

Same as in normal (FIDE) Chess.

Rules

During a turn, players alternate turns moving pieces forward, including
capturing.  A piece must end its turn on a space that is closer to the last
row then when it started (Last row being where their pawn promotes). 
Normally this would consist of a move straight forward, or diagonally
forward.  In the case of the knight piece, it is as done normally, except
that it loses 4 of its moves (those that would move it further away from
the last row).  Castling is also not permitted.  

In Forwards Chess, player wins if they checkmate their opponent.  They can
also win if their opponent is stalemated (unable to move any of their
pieces).

Note: A piece may be considered to be able to deliver a check backwards to
a King, even if the King is passed the piece.  This is a correction based
upon the original rules by lgrotmar on the Scheming Mind site.

Notes

When I first saw this game discussed on the schemingmind website:
http://www.schemingmind.com/topic.aspx?topic_id=81174&page=1

I thought it was missing something.  However, playing it in Zillions, with
the right set of rules, revealed that it had sufficient depth to consider. 
It reminded me a bit of Mark Steere's Dipole, in that it has a finite
number of moves, and looks playable.  Time will reveal exactly how much
depth is in the game.

A Zillions adaptation that contains Forwards Chess can be found here:
http://www.zillionsofgames.com/cgi-bin/zilligames/submissions.cgi/90451?do=show;id=1617

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By Rich Hutnik.
Web page created: 2008-08-12. Web page last updated: 2008-08-12