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Insane. Pieces change to random type when they move. With program playing this variant.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]

Rich Hutnik wrote on Fri, Apr 4, 2008 02:20 PM EDT:

Here is a practical way to implement Insane:
The idea inspired a bit to come up with a way to make this doable.  Perhaps you have players end up having 6 reserve pieces.  You can adjust accordingly as to what those pieces are based on the skill of the player. These pieces go on numbers 1-6.  As a player moves a piece and it lands, you roll a die.  Swap out the piece there with the random one in reserve.  It has a similar effect, but also allows you to handicap.  You could, for example, give the much weaker player 6 queens.  The strong player has none.  What I will say is Insane, to me, looks like it uses a form of gating:
http://chessvariants.wikidot.com/pcp-tg:gating

Insane looks like it uses the (d) form of gating.

Players could fiddle with this so the desired outcome is more stable, but still has the surprise effect at the end.

I will let others think on this a bit.  Please comment.