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Marseillais Chess. Move twice per turn. (8x8, Cells: 64) (Recognized!)[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
🕸Fergus Duniho wrote on Tue, Feb 25, 2003 03:47 AM UTC:Good ★★★★
This looks like an interesting game, but I don't wonder why no Zillions file is listed for it. This one would seem to be a difficult game to implement. The rule against checking on the first move may be difficult to implement, unless it's just impossible. I haven't analyzed the matter far enough to know whether it's possible. For each possible move, Zillions would have to check whether the enemy King would be in check. There is no query function for this, and even if there was one, it might be very costly. One might note the enemy King's location, then keep checking whether it is defended. But I'm not sure that this will work.

Andreas Kaufmann wrote on Fri, Nov 7, 2003 11:10 PM UTC:Excellent ★★★★★
Can anybody create a game courier preset for Marseillais Chess (Balanced variant)? Thanks!

Roberto Lavieri wrote on Thu, Dec 2, 2004 02:32 AM UTC:Good ★★★★
This game is not so easy to play in the opening!, tactics are enterely different than in FIDE-Chess, and it is very easy lose material if you try to develop fast your pieces looking for suposed 'positional advantage' that, in the majority of the cases, it is not advantage of any class, much times you fall in exposed positions, it seems better play it in a somewhat conservative way, being very careful with the support to all your major pieces in play. If you take not care, you can be checkmated very soon. The average number of moves to finish a game can be of no more than 20 moves. this game is extremely dynamic, and it must be balanced with the usual rule: in the first move, White plays only one move. If not, White advantage is notorious in the opening. Surprisingly, e2-e4 does not seem to be the best first move in this game.

Roberto Lavieri wrote on Thu, Dec 2, 2004 07:51 PM UTC:Good ★★★★
Greg, you are right, all pieces have rifle capture capabilities, but much more than this, power of pieces is not only extraordinary, it is augmented by the fact that you can move not only the same piece twice, but two consecutive moves with different pieces too. On an empty board, Queen and Rooks can reach ALL the rest of the squares (63!) from any initial position. Ends are a madness, and for this reason the games finish very soon, in very rare cases you can play a game which finishes in more than 25 moves!

David Paulowich wrote on Wed, Feb 16, 2005 02:06 AM UTC:Excellent ★★★★★
'The reason the Queen is worth more than the separate Rook and Bishop is that she gets a bonus from having 8 directions of movement.' - Ralph Betza, who also writes '... the Queen is worth a notable amount more than the separate R and B, but this seems to be mostly because pieces that concentrate great value are as a general rule worth more than their separate component pieces (more forking power).'

To paraphrase Betza, the Queen's ability to do 'two things at once' makes it worth a Pawn more than a Rook and a Bishop. My last game of Marseillais Chess leads me to the opinion that Q=R+B exactly in this variant, as the two separate pieces can both move in the same turn. The subject of Marseillais Chess piece values deserves further study.


Kevin Pacey wrote on Mon, Sep 19, 2016 02:41 AM UTC:Excellent ★★★★★

The fact that one of the best chess players of all time (Alekhine) took the trouble to play at least one game of this variant may count for something.

In trying to tentatively estimate the value of the pieces in this variant, I'd guess that the long range pieces may be worth, say, one and a half times what I give them as in standard chess. Thus: P=1; N=3.49; B=5.25; R=8.25; Q=15 and the fighting value of K=4 (though naturally it cannot be traded).


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