Comments/Ratings for a Single Item

⇧Earliest ⇧Earlier ⇧Reverse Order⇩ ~~Later~~

Spartan Chess. A game with unequal armies. (8x8, Cells: 64) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]

💡📝Steven Streetman wrote on Tue, Jul 19, 2011 05:42 PM UTC:

Spartan Chess Puzzles - Solutions

Puzzle #1
Black (Spartan) to move and mate in 3

1.  ...	Lf3-e3+
2.  Kb1	Cb5-b3+
3.  Ka1	L35-c3#
----------------------------------------------
Puzzle #2 
Black (Spartan) to move and mate in 4

1.  ...		Hb2-c1 = K
2.  Qa2xKc2	Kc1xQc2
3.  Ka1-a2	Ca5-a4+
4.  Ka2-a1	Ca4-a3#

Only by promotion the hoplite to a King can the Spartan win.
Persian moves other than 2. Qa2xKc2 result in a quicker Spartan victory.

2. Qa2-b3	Ca5-a3+
3. Qb3xCa3	Kc1-b1#

2. (any other)	Kc1-b1#
 
----------------------------------------------
Puzzle #3 
White (Persian) to move and mate in 2

1.  Nd8-b7+	Ld5xNb7
2.  b2-b4#

----------------------------------------------
Puzzle #4 
Black (Spartan) to move and mate in 3

1.  ...		Lf5-c3+
2.  Bb2xLc3	La5xBc3+
3.  Rf3xLc3	Wb4xRc3#

----------------------------------------------
Puzzle #5 
Black (Spartan) to move and mate in 2

1.  ...		Wc5xb3+
2.  Kc1-b2	Hd2-c1=W#

Mr. Anonymous wrote on Tue, Jul 19, 2011 10:44 PM UTC:

Ah, nice solution to puzzle 2. I'm not looking at the other answers, as I may have a chance to work them out myself, although I may look at #3 to see if I properly understand everything.

💡📝Steven Streetman wrote on Sat, Oct 1, 2011 08:16 PM UTC:

Have you ever seen chess warriors so menacing?

A Spartan chess set is now designed and prototyped.
The prototypes set is available for sale on Shapeways: Spartan SetÂ Â Â

Jörg Knappen wrote on Tue, Jun 18, 2013 07:41 AM UTC:

I'd suggest changing the "punchline" to something more descriptive than "http://www.spartanchessonline.com". Suggestion: "The spartan army with 2 Kings and novel pieces fights against the persians (standard chess army)"

The punchline occurs in several listings on this site, including the favourite games listing.

Julian wrote on Wed, Jun 3, 2015 07:51 PM UTC:

An approximate setup using the alfaerie pieces:
/play/pbm/play.php?game=Anti-King%2520Chess%2520II&set=alfaerie-many&flip=1&movelist=1.%2520k%2520e8-f8%2520%250A1...%2520k-c8%2520%250A2.%2520.rf-b8%2520%250A2...%2520x-h7%253B%2520x-g7%253B%2520x-f7%253B%2520x-e7%253B%2520x-d7%253B%2520x-c7%253B%2520x-b7%253B%2520x-a7%2520%250A3.%2520.dw-d8%253B%2520.dw-e8%2520%250A3...%2520.ef-a8%2520%250A4.%2520.ef-h8&movenum=7&seed=1957544903&game=Anti-King%2520Chess%2520II&turn=4&moves=a-g8&submit=Move&_render=table&_shape=square&_scale=100&_set=alfaerie-many&selectcolors=&_colors=339933+CCCC11+22BB22&_bcolor=111199

H. G. Muller wrote on Thu, Jun 4, 2015 09:36 AM UTC:

Nice, but it still says 'Anti-King Chess'.

H. G. Muller wrote on Thu, Oct 20, 2016 02:22 PM UTC:Excellent ★★★★★

holdingsType=1 promoZone=1 maxPromote=2 promoChoice=*N*B*R*Q*C*L*G*W*K graphicsDir=http://www.chessvariants.com/membergraphics/MSelven-chess/ whitePrefix=w blackPrefix=b graphicsType=png startShade=#FFCC00 symmetry=none pawn::fmWfcFifmnD::a2-h2,, hoplit::fmFfcWifmA:lance:,,a7-h7 knight:N:::b1,g1,,:8,0 bishop:B:B::c1,f1,,:8,0 rook::::a1,h1,,:8,0 queen::::d1,,:8,0 captain::WD:tower:,,d8,e8:0,8 lieutenant::FAsmW:elephant:,,a8,h8:0,8 general::RF:crownedrook:,,b8:0,8 warlord::BN:archbishop:,,g8:0,8 king (spartan)::K:king:,,c8,f8 king (persian)::KisO2:king:e1,,

Color coding of moves:

move or capture (sliding)
move or capture (jump)
non-capture only
initial non-capture (for virgin pieces only)
capture only
moving into or passing through check

Spartan Chess

This game is one of the top favorites of this site. As it also does feature a fair number of unorthodox pieces that makes it deservant of an interactive diagram. Especially since almost all comments on it have been totally garbled by messing up their layout.

Because of the asymmetry of this variant it required some special attention to make sure the diagram would only allow each side to promote to its own pieces. What I did was define the promotion choice with an asterisk before each piece, meaning it can only come from the holdings. Then I stuffed the holdings initially with eight of each eligible piece type (enough to promote all Pawns to it).

Except for the Spartan King, which would only be a valid promotion choice if one of the Kings was captured. So I defined the holdings type such that it would accumulate captured pieces of the original owner. By starting without Kings in hand the Spartans then can only promote to King when one of their Kings is captured.

Castling

Only the Persians can castle, and this forced the Persian and Spartan Kings to be defined as different piece types. (If castling is specified with the aid of an O atom, the diagram assumes it is with a Rook or a corner piece of any type. And we do'nt want the Spartan Kings to castle with their Lieutenants!) This has the dubious effect of the Spartan Kings not being considered royal (as the diagram only considers one piece royal, by default the last one defined). So moves of Spartan Kings into check are not 'grayed out', like they are for the Persian King. But of course this is justifiable, as the Spartan King can actually expose itself to capture (if there still is a second one). So such moves can be legal. The diagram does not understand extinction royalty.

Nick Wolff wrote on Thu, Mar 30, 2017 07:43 PM UTC:

I see a lot of work has been put into this game and it has been favorited by several people. However, I don't see a Game Courier preset. Is there one of these currently and if not, would it be violating any copyright policies to impliment one? Seems odd to have one of the top favorited games on the site without a preset.

Greg Strong wrote on Fri, Mar 31, 2017 03:58 PM UTC:

I think people have always felt free to implement presets that had not yet been created. It is unlikely there would be an objection.

In the case of Spartan Chess, I know the inventor wanted a GC preset and had created some new piece graphics to be added to the Alfaerie set for that purpose. This was probably about 6 years ago, but they should be in my email. I will dig them up and get them uploaded and get a Piece Set created so that the pieces can be identified by proper notation.

Nick Wolff wrote on Sat, Apr 1, 2017 01:47 AM UTC:

Heck yeah!

Then let's play! It looks like a CWA theme game.

David Cannon wrote on Wed, Apr 8, 2020 02:10 PM UTC:Excellent ★★★★★

I don't usually like games with different armies, but this is an exception. You've put a lot of thought into making a game whose different armies are not unevenly matched. For sure, the Spartan side lacks a Queen and its army appears to be slightly less powerful, but that is compensated for by the presence of two kings, both of which must be checkmated/captured.

David Paulowich wrote on Sun, Feb 12, 2023 04:44 PM UTC:Good ★★★★

Spartan Chess has the Warlord and the General, together worth approximately three Rooks. These are solid performers that have been used in many variants. Worth noting that pieces like the Lieutenant with additional noncapturing moves are rare. My Shatranj Kamil (64) has Elephants with noncapturing Dabbabah leaps and ArchMage Chess by Cyrus Arturas has the Prince, a Commoner with noncapturing R2 moves (no mention of Dabbabah leaps). In the diagram below, a Warlord pins a Rook against the White King - winning the piece and the game.