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Progressive chess
Progressive chess is the chess variant, where white starts with one
move, then black makes two moves, then white three moves, then black four
moves, etc. There are actually three main variants of these, namely Italian
Progressive Chess, English progressive chess,
and Scottish Chess.
See also:
Italian Progressive Chess
This game might well be the most popular Chess Variant. A great number
of tournaments of Italian progressive chess are organised:
- International championship
- Italian, Russian, Ucranian Championship
- Olympic tournament
- International team championship
- Annual tournaments in England, Germany, Czech Republic, Ucraine, Russia,
Poland, ...
The best players are:
- Mario Leoncini (Italy) 7 times Italian Champion.
- Giuseppe Dipitato (Barletta-Italy 1961-1992) 5 times Italian Champion.
- Jaroslav Gadzinskij (Ucraine) Olympic champion.
Bibliography
Mario Leoncini and Roberto Magari, "Manuale di Scacchi Eterodossi",
Siena-Italy 1980.
Giuseppe Dipilato and Mario Leoncini, "Fondamenti di Scacchi Progressivi",
Macerata-Italy 1987.
Giuseppe Dipilato, "Scacchi Progressivi - La partita di Dona 1.d4",
Macerata-Italy 1992.
PRBASE, the Italian Progressive Chess Data Base (over 10,000 games),
Macerata-Italy 1989-1995.
Rules
FIDE chess rules are in effect, with the exception of what follows:
- The two players alternate series of moves of increasing length: white
starts playing 1 move, black plays then a series of two moves, white plays
then a series of three moves and so on.
- Series are a whole and no restriction is made on the kind of moves
that can be made in a given series, with the only exception explained in
the following point.
- A check can be administered only with the last move of a series. Similarly
an opponent's check must be defended with the first move of the new series,
In particular, if the only way of parrying a check has the effect of checking
immediately the opponent's king, the game is lost (progressive checkmate).
- The "en passant" capture is allowed only when the three following
conditions are satisfied:
- the "to be captured" pawn was pushed two steps ahead in the
previous series and not moved further;
- the capture takes place as first move of the series.
- the square where the capturing pawn move is unoccupied.
- If a player has no legal moves available and it is not under check,
even if this occurs in the middle of a series, the game is a draw (progressive
stalemate).
- If no pawns are pushed or no captures take place for 10 series in a
row, the game is a draw unless one color can prove a forced win.
Notation
It is customary to number the series consecutively, in relation with
their length; so, for instance, 1 e2e4, 2 e7e5 f6f6, 3 Ng1h3 Bf1e2 Be2h5+
is preferable to 1 e2e4, e7e5 f7f6, 2 Ng1h3 Bf1e2 Be2h5+, etc.. All players
are strongly invited to adopt this convention.
English Progressive Chess
This game is played regularly in Italy, USA and Ucraine.
Best players
Tony Gardner (USA) and Alessandro Castelli (Italy) co-champion - 1st
International Championship.
Bibliography
Tony Gardner, Tactics and Theory of ENPR, privately printed 1995.
Rules
All orthodox chess rules apply except as follows:
- White makes one move, Black makes two moves, White makes three moves,
etc., increasing the number of moves by one at each turn to play.
- As soon as player gives check, he loses any remaining moves which he
still had the right to play in that turn.
- In each turn every mobile piece must have moved once before any can
move a second time. Once all pieces have moved, the count starts over;
thus if a piece has been blocked for three rounds in a turn and is then
unblocked, it doesn't get three catch-up moves. Castling counts as both
K and R moves in a sequence. If a pawn promotes, the promoted piece can't
move until next sequence.
- A player may not expose his King to check on any of his series of moves
even though he immediately eliminates the check on the following move of
the series.
- Check must be parried on the first following move.
- No en passant capture.
- If a player moves into a stalemate position before completing his series
of moves, the game is a draw.
Scottish Chess
Scottish Chess (also called: Scotch Chess, Blitz Chess, Lightning Chess,
Speed Chess, Avalanche Chess (which shouldn't be used because this is the
name of another chess variant), Scottish Progressive Chess or just Progressive
Chess) is the oldest of all progressive chess variants, probably coming
out of Great Britain (but possibly not necessarily Scotland) just before
World War II.
The variant is very popular. In two email tournaments were held, one
in 1992/1993, and one in 1996.
Rules
The rules are the same as the rules of Italian progressive
chess, with one important difference:
- Players are allowed to give a check before the end of their move series.
This end their move series. For instance, if white would give check in
the second movement of his third turn, then the third till fifth movements
are lost; black still has his six movements for his third turn.
Text by Alessandro Castelli (email removed contact us for address) ink.it
with some additions by Hans Bodlaender.
Last modified: August 16, 1996.
Last modified: Monday, December 22, 2008
