Chigorin Chess

By Ralph Betza

Mikhail Ivanovich Chigorin

Chigorin was a great chess genius, a deep calculator, and a strategic wizard, but was never the world champion.

Today he is mostly remembered as a player who preferred Knights to Bishops. He didn't, really; instead, he had a more modern understanding of the relative values than his contemporaries, he realized that it all depends on the position, and that losing a tempo to get B for N is usually a bad idea.

Chigorin Chess

White starts the game with two Rooks, on h1 and a1, four Knights, on g1, f1, c1, and b1, a Chancellor on d1, and the usual King and Pawns.

Black begins with two Rooks, on h8 and a8, four Bishops, on g8, f8, c8, and b8, a Queen on d8, plus King and Pawns.

+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+ | r |:b:| b |:q:| k |:b:| b |:r:| +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+ |:p:| p |:p:| p |:p:| p |:p:| p | +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+ | |:::| |:::| |:::| |:::| +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+ |:::| |:::| |:::| |:::| | +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+ | |:::| |:::| |:::| |:::| +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+ |:::| |:::| |:::| |:::| | +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+ | P |:P:| P |:P:| P |:P:| P |:P:| +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+ |:R:| N |:N:| C |:K:| N |:N:| R | +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+

Pawn Promotion

According to the FIDE rules, Pawns can promote to anything that was on the board at the start of the game, except that promotion to King is illegal; and this is how I usually interpret the rule when applied to Chess with Different Armies.

However, in this case, I rather like the rule that Pawns can promote to anything (except King) that was in the player's army at the start of the game. This is also a valid interpretation of the FIDE rules, and seems to be especially appropriate for this game.

Other than that, the standard rules of FIDE Chess are used.

Critique of Chigorin Chess

Chigorin Chess is the sort of game you can get a regular chessplayer to try, as it uses strictly normal rules and almost normal pieces. This is perhaps its main value -- a stealth form of Chess with Different Armies.

However, it is also a good game in its own right. It emphasizes a single aspect of the struggle found in FIDE Chess, and therefore is easy to understand and to enjoy.

Written by Ralph Betza.

WWW page created: April 8, 2002.

Comments

Chigorin Chess. White has knights instead of bishops and a chancellor for his queen; black has bishops instead of knights. (8x8, Cells: 64)

Jeremy Good wrote on 2014-12-20 UTC

My excellent rating is based on a feeling, not experience, just the feeling that the CDAs of Knights vs. Bishops would be enormously fun to play and experiment with for FIDE enthusiasts. I assume that the struggle will hinge partly on whether the side with the knights can minimize unfavorable exchanges, get good outposts for its knights and keep the position fairly closed. I have a few open invitations to play Chigorin Chess currently and would like to invite people to explore it with me.

Jeremy Good wrote on 2014-12-20 UTCExcellent ★★★★★

For my own purposes, I am going to dub the side with the knights the Chigorin Chess CDA (Chess with Different Armies). The side with the two bishop pairs, I'm going to call the Kaufman CDA Army, after FIDE Grandmaster, great chess computer programmer and Shogi expert Larry Kaufman, in honor of his work on Bishop Pairs.

Gary Gifford wrote on 2008-04-25 UTC

In regard to the comment, 'What can you say about the poor Knight? It doesn't get any weaker as the game goes on, it's just that the other pieces get stronger while the Knight stays the same.'

That may often seem like the case, but it is often not the case (at least not in FIDE chess). There are many end-games, for example, when one player has a Bishop of color opposite to that upon which his opponent's pawns rest. And, the other player has a Knight which can attack that player's pawns. I have won many such end-games. In fact, there are end-game books which clearly point out the scenarios in which knights end up being decisively better than Bishops.

H.G.Muller wrote on 2008-04-25 UTC

It is not obvious to me that this is two. With two Bishops on each color,
each Bishop now has two othe Bishops with which it can cooperate.

When I have time I will run all combinations BNNN, BBNN, BNBN, BBBN and
BBBB against the 4 Knights, to see how the advantage grows. BBNN is known
to be more than double the BNNN advantage (the difference being the pair
bonus, of about 50cP), while BNBN (like colored Bishops) does give double
the BNNN advantage. But I haven't tried BBBN yet. And this measures very
small differences, so it should use many games (1000+).

David Paulowich wrote on 2008-04-25 UTC

How many Bishop pairs should you count? Two seems right to me. I chose that 4N vs 4B setup to allow standard chess programs to be used, but Zillions seems to be more reliable on Windows Vista than Deep Fritz, which is the only other chess engine I own.

Ralph Betza also writes 'What can you say about the poor Knight? It doesn't get any weaker as the game goes on, it's just that the other pieces get stronger while the Knight stays the same. In fact, it would be reasonable to conclude that the value of the Knight during the opening and middlegame exceeds its conventional value. In fact, that would explain why I have won so many games by allowing my opponent to 'win' a Bishop for a Knight in the early part of the game.'

Number of ratings: 4, Average rating: Excellent, Number of comments: 16