Items Authored by Ralph Betza

Craft

1. Building an 8 by 8 by 8 board. On how to design a three dimensional chess board. Author: Ralph Betza.

Game

1. 2x2x16 Race Chess. Race Chess on a 2-level circular board with Crooked Bishops and Queens. (2x(2x16), Cells: 64) By Ralph Betza.
2. 3d offset chess. Chess variants, invented by Ralph Betza, on non-cubic three dimensional boards. By Ralph Betza.
3. 4x16 Race Chess Revisited. New version of race chess on circular 4 by 16 board. (16x4, Cells: 64) By Ralph Betza.
4. Alice chess against normal chess.. Alice's Army. By Ralph Betza.
5. The All Around Allstars. A set of chess pieces with different movement, that can be matched against `The Fabulous FIDEs'. By Ralph Betza.
6. The Amazon Army. One player has an Amazon (a queen with knights move) and handicapped rooks. By Ralph Betza.
7. Amontillado. Pieces have combined `halfling' powers, going half the usual distance. (8x8, Cells: 64) By Ralph Betza.
8. Anti-Prechess. The opponent must place your piece on the board. (8x8, Cells: 64) By Ralph Betza.
9. Archoniclastic Chess. Pieces are augmented on squares of their color. (8x8, Cells: 64) By Ralph Betza.
10. Ataturk Chess. One of your pieces in addition to your King is royal (your vice-president), and it can be changed. (8x8, Cells: 64) By Ralph Betza.
11. Augmented Chess. Players give standard chess pieces small additional movement possibilities from predescribed set. (8x8, Cells: 64) By Ralph Betza.
12. Augmented Different Knights. Knights receive different additional movement possibilities. (8x8, Cells: 64) By Ralph Betza.
13. Augmented Half Chess. Pieces can go half as far, but then are augmented with additional movement possibilitie. (8x8, Cells: 64) By Ralph Betza.
14. Betza's Flying Circus. Bombers and interceptors fly above the chess board. By Ralph Betza.
15. Betza's Three Dimensional Chess Games. Several 3d-chess variants by Ralph Betza. By Ralph Betza.
16. The Black Ghost. Black gets a teleporting Ghost piece that can not capture to balance White's first move advantage. (8x8, Cells: 64) By Ralph Betza.
17. Buypoint Chess. Buy your fighting force - each piece costs a number of points. By Ralph Betza.
18. Captain Spalding Chess. Find an Elephant in your Pajamas. By Ralph Betza.
19. Cassandra Chess. Prophesy the doom of opposing pieces two turns in advance to capture them. (8x8, Cells: 64) By Ralph Betza.
20. Castlingmost Chess. All movement in this variant is a form of castling. (8x8, Cells: 64) By Ralph Betza.
21. Cavewars CSIPGS Chess. Three dimensional chess variant based on Cavewars game. By Ralph Betza.
22. Chatter Chess. Variant based on the idea of line chatter where rider pieces can switch to other friendly pieces' lines of movement. (8x8, Cells: 64) By Ralph Betza.
23. Chess For Any Number of Players. Rules for multiplayer chess that can be played with an arbitrary number of players. By Ralph Betza.
24. Chess on a Really Big Board. Chess on multiple chess boards. (16x16, Cells: 256) By Ralph Betza.
25. Chess Variants with Inverse Capture. Several variants around the idea that captures are done in the manner of the captured piece. (8x8, Cells: 64) By Ralph Betza.
26. Chess with Different Armies. Betza's classic variant where white and black play with different sets of pieces. (Recognized!) By Ralph Betza.
27. Chess with Mixed Pawns. Four normal and four Berolina pawns per player. (8x8, Cells: 64) By Ralph Betza.
28. Chessopoly. Board with a hole in the middle where pawns move clockwise. (12x12, Cells: 128) By Ralph Betza.
29. Chigorin Chess. White has knights instead of bishops and a chancellor for his queen; black has bishops instead of knights. (8x8, Cells: 64) By Ralph Betza.
30. Chutes and Ladders Chess. Game played on two boards with two sets with user placed and removed chutes and ladders connecting the boards. (8x8, Cells: 64) By Ralph Betza.
31. Circular Chess, Improved. Circular Chess where Bishops and Queens are crooked, and all Pawns go in the same direction. (2x16, Cells: 64) By Ralph Betza.
32. Closing Time. During certain turns, you must move pieces out of a central area of the board (`the pub'). (8x8, Cells: 64) By Ralph Betza.
33. The Colorbound Clobberers. A team for Chess with Different Armies with many colorbound pieces. By Ralph Betza.
34. Colorboundmost and Nearly Colorboundmost Chess. Games with all pieces either completely or almost completely colorbound. (8x8, Cells: 64) By Ralph Betza.
35. Confusion Chess 1b. Every piece is replaced by something roughly equivalent that moves strangely. (8x8, Cells: 64) By Ralph Betza.
36. Crowd Chess 1: Safety in Numbers. More pieces can occupy the same square - you can only form or move to a crowd by a non-capturing move. (8x8, Cells: 64) By Ralph Betza.
37. Crowd Chess 2: All Go Together. More pieces can occupy the same square and share the same fate. (8x8, Cells: 64) By Ralph Betza.
38. csipgs Chess. Design and buy new chess pieces during play. (8x8, Cells: 64) By Ralph Betza.
39. The Cylindrical Cinders. Army for Chess with Different Armies where many of the pieces can move as if the board was a cylinder. By Ralph Betza.
40. DemiChess. Most pieces have about half the strength as in normal chess. (8x8, Cells: 64) By Ralph Betza.
41. DemiChess Revisited. Updated information on DemiChess. (8x8, Cells: 64) By Ralph Betza.
42. DemiRifleChess. Rifle Chess where most pieces have about half the strength as in normal chess. (8x8, Cells: 64) By Ralph Betza.
43. Diceless Chessgammon. Move all pieces off the opponents side of the board. (8x8, Cells: 64) By Ralph Betza.
44. Double Hammer Chess. Missing description (8x8, Cells: 64) By Ralph Betza.
45. Doublestep Chess and Doubletime Chess. Missing description (8x8, Cells: 64) By Ralph Betza.
46. Doublewide Chess. A discussion of the variant where two complete chess sets (including two Kings per side) are set up on a doublewide board. (16x8, Cells: 128) Author: Ralph Betza.
47. Duck Soup Chess. Pawns on turnwise randomly determined colored squares cannot be taken. (8x8, Cells: 64) By Ralph Betza.
48. Earthquake Chess. An earthquake caused a kind of Z-form in the board. (8x8, Cells: 8) By Ralph Betza.
49. Elevator Chess. Multiple boards with simultaneous games are linked through central elevator squares. By Ralph Betza.
50. The Fair First Move Rule in Chess. Every turn you flip a coin to see who goes first. By Ralph Betza.
51. Falling Off. `Captured' pieces do not disappear, but get momentum, and can fall off the edge of the board. (8x8, Cells: 64) By Ralph Betza.
52. Feeble Chess. Some Chess variants with weaker pieces. (8x8, Cells: 64) By Ralph Betza.
53. Fetch Chess. Double-move game where the Cat (who may be a 3rd player) may or may not fetch your pawns back. (8x8, Cells: 64) By Ralph Betza.
54. Fifo Chess. Each square acts as a First-In-First-Out queue. (8x8, Cells: 64) By Ralph Betza.
55. FireFighter Chess. A game where one piece is a secret fire fighter with special powers. (8x8, Cells: 64) By Ralph Betza.
56. The Forward FIDEs. A team for Chess with Different Armies where pieces can advancer easier than retreat. By Ralph Betza.
57. The Game for the Trees. Pieces grow on the board, occupying multiple squares. (8x8, Cells: 64) By Ralph Betza.
58. The Game of Nemoroth. For the sake of your sanity, do not read this variant! (8x8, Cells: 64) By Ralph Betza.
59. Golden Age Chess On a Really Big Board. Variant on 16 by 16 board with several different pieces. (16x16, Cells: 256) By Ralph Betza.
60. Greener Chess. The grass is always greener on the other side of the fence -- and your pieces are stronger there too. (8x8, Cells: 64) By Ralph Betza.
61. Half Chess. Pieces have approximately half their usual movement possibilities. (8x8, Cells: 64) By Ralph Betza.
62. Halfling Chess. Game where all pieces (except Knights) are Halflings. (8x8, Cells: 64) By Ralph Betza.
63. Hans37 Chess. Chess variant for four players on a board of 37 squares. (Cells: 37) By Ralph Betza.
64. Hans38 Chess. A form of Chess with a Limited Supply of Squares; entry of the 38-challenge. (8x8, Cells: 38) By Ralph Betza.
65. Het Amazone leger. Dames kunnen als paard zetten, maar de toren kan maar 4 vakken ver. (Dutch Language) Author: Jos Jansen of Lorkeers and Ralph Betza. Inventor: Ralph Betza.
66. Hitpoint Chess 1. Pieces have hitpoints, like in a wargame. (8x8, Cells: 64) By Ralph Betza.
67. Inchworm and Longworm Chess. Pieces move their heads to a new square, then move their tail to that square on a later move. (8x8, Cells: 64) By Ralph Betza.
68. The Iron Knight. A number of variants with uncapturable pieces. (8x8, Cells: 64) By Ralph Betza.
69. Jack-Be-Nimble Chess. Jumping pieces have to learn how before they jump tall pieces. (8x8, Cells: 64) By Ralph Betza.
70. The Jovan Army. An army for Chess with Different Armies featuring heavy pieces that move forward slowly. By Ralph Betza.
71. Koopschaak (BuyPoint Chess). Bij het begin van het spel heb je pionnen en koning en 31 punten waarmee je andere stukken kan kopen (Dutch Language) Author: Ralph Betza and Jos Jansen of Lorkeers. Inventor: Ralph Betza.
72. Lag Chess. The last move made by your opponent is not known to you. (8x8, Cells: 64) By Ralph Betza.
73. Lene Hau Chess. Pieces take several turns for doing one move, going only one square per turn. (8x8, Cells: 64) By Ralph Betza.
74. Limited Doublemove Chess. Several variants on Doublemove Chess. (8x8, Cells: 64) By Ralph Betza.
75. Limited Square Chess. A form of Chess with a Limited Supply of Squares; entry of the 38-challenge. (8x8, Cells: 38) By Ralph Betza.
76. Many Rules in One Game. List chess and variants. By Ralph Betza.
77. Minigolf Chess on a Really Big Board. Pieces have momentum, bounce against the walls, and can be spinned in variant on 8 by 16 board. (16x8, Cells: 128) By Ralph Betza.
78. Missing the Mark. Making intentional errors. (8x8, Cells: 64) By Ralph Betza.
79. Momentum Chess. Pieces keep moving in the same direction. (8x8, Cells: 64) By Ralph Betza.
80. Monster Chess Variants. A Discussion of the value of Double-Move pieces. (8x8, Cells: 64) Author: Ralph Betza.
81. More Shifted Square Chess. Shifted Square Chess needs more than one page to explore its possibilities. (8x8, Cells: 64) By Ralph Betza.
82. Multiple Occupancy Miscellany. Various chess variants with multiple pieces per square. (8x8, Cells: 64) By Ralph Betza.
83. Nemoroth, The Game of. For the sake of your sanity, do not read this variant! (8x8, Cells: 64) By Ralph Betza.
84. New Types of Progressive Chess. Several new progressive chess variants. (8x8, Cells: 64) By Ralph Betza.
85. The Nutty Knights. A team for Chess with Different Armies based around the moves of the Knight. By Ralph Betza.
86. One or Two. Make a normal move, or denote two pieces for which your opponent chooses how they must be moved. (8x8, Cells: 64) By Ralph Betza.
87. OOmost Chess. All movement in this variant is a form of castling. (8x8, Cells: 64) By Ralph Betza.
88. Outrigger Chess. On 10 by 8 board, with several variants. (10x8, Cells: 80) By Ralph Betza.
89. Overprotection Chess. If an attacked piece is more often defended than it is attacked, it gains extra powers. (8x8, Cells: 64) By Ralph Betza.
90. PASGL 312 Chess. Critters steal lunch in the forest, while trying to get close to the campfire and avoid the train. (Cells: 68) By Ralph Betza.
91. Piazza San Marco Chess. On random moments, the middle of the board gets flooded, meaning that pieces can get out only by using special walkways. By Ralph Betza.
92. Pied Color Chess. Oh no! All the colors on the board have been scrambled -- however will the pieces move? (8x8, Cells: 64) By Ralph Betza.
93. Poker Chess. Squares contain cards, and players win by forming poker hands with the cards on the squares occupied by their pieces. (8x8, Cells: 64) By Ralph Betza.
94. Polypiece Chess. Each time a piece moves, all pieces of that type on both sides change their move. (8x8, Cells: 64) By Ralph Betza.
95. Race Chess. On a circular board where white and black pawns move in the same direction. (8x8, Cells: 64) By Ralph Betza.
96. Rebellion chess. Besides normal moves, you can move a piece of the opponent. (8x8, Cells: 64) By Ralph Betza.
97. Rectahex Chesss. A chess variant that looks like hexagonal chess but can be played on a normal chess board. (8x8, Cells: 64) By Ralph Betza.
98. Refreshing Bubble Fizz Chess. When a piece moves, he can create a bubble. Pieces in bubbles cannot move for three turns, but may make two non-capturing moves. By Ralph Betza.
99. The Remarkable Rookies. A team for Chess with Different Armies with Rook-like pieces. By Ralph Betza.
100. Rental Chess. You must pay rent for the squares where your pieces are: centre squares are more expensive. (8x8, Cells: 64) By Ralph Betza.
101. Retrochess. Play chess from the end of the game backwards. (8x8, Cells: 64) By João Pedro Neto and Ralph Betza.
102. Secret Agent Chess. Each player chooses one opposing minor piece to be a secret agent. (8x8, Cells: 64) By Ralph Betza.
103. Shifted Square Chess. One square is removed from the normal playing area and one square is added at the edge of the normal playing area. (8x8, Cells: 64) By Ralph Betza.
104. Sixteen Pawns. Trade a queen for 8 extra pawn. (8x8, Cells: 64) Author: Ralph Betza. Inventor: M. de Kemur.
105. Taxi Chess. Pay for moves: long moves are expensive. By Ralph Betza.
106. This Game is for the Birds. Game where pieces fly past obstacles and some pieces capture by pecking. (8x8, Cells: 64) Author: Ralph Betza and John Lawson. Inventor: Ralph Betza and Peter Aronson.
107. Three Kinds of Billiards Chess. Pieces bounce off the edges of the board. (8x8, Cells: 64) By Ralph Betza.
108. Tilting the Balance. Players can set off an atomic bomb. By Ralph Betza.
109. Tingles, Bumps, and Punches. A set of variants on cylindrical and toroidal boards featuring a peace bump between the top and bottom of the board. (8x8, Cells: 64) By Ralph Betza.
110. TireBiter Chess. When taking, pieces can split and become a Tirebiter piece. (8x8, Cells: 64) By Ralph Betza.
111. Touring Chess. Pieces can either move normally or leap on a Knight's tour only known in advance to the referee. (8x8, Cells: 64) By Ralph Betza.
112. Trap Chess. Pieces can only be taken when they are trapped. (8x8, Cells: 64) By Ralph Betza.
113. Trapdoor Chess. Pieces fall through the board if they stand still too long. (8x8, Cells: 64) By Ralph Betza.
114. Tripunch Chess. Knights become Nightriders, Rooks add Gryphon moves, Bishops add Aanca moves, and Queens become unbelievable. (8x8, Cells: 64) By Ralph Betza.
115. Troll Chess. When taken, pieces lose part of their strenght with they regenerate during successive turns. (8x8, Cells: 64) By Ralph Betza.
116. Turning chess. Pieces can turn 45 degrees after movement. (8x8, Cells: 64) By Ralph Betza.
117. Twinkie Danger Chess. Game on two initially unliked boards where each turn you add or drop a link. (8x8, Cells: 64) By Ralph Betza.
118. Wand Chess. Pieces have a magic wand, that gives random outcomes. By Ralph Betza.
119. Warm Spit Chess. One of your pieces in addition to your King is royal (your vice-president), and it can be changed. (8x8, Cells: 64) By Ralph Betza.
120. Way of the Knight. Pieces with experience levels: a `role playing variant'. By Ralph Betza.
121. Weak!. Black has 7 knights, and 16 pawns, White the usual array. (8x8, Cells: 64) Author: Ralph Betza.
122. Weakest Chess. Some Chess variants with weaker pieces. (8x8, Cells: 64) By Ralph Betza.
123. Zero Relay Chess. Pieces can occcupy the same square and then relay their powers to each other. (8x8, Cells: 64) By Ralph Betza.

Interview

1. Betza, Ralph. An interview with the `Grandmaster of Chess Variant Design'. Author: Hans L. Bodlaender and Ralph Betza.

Piece

1. Bent Riders. A discussion of pieces, like the Gryphon, that take a step then move as riders. By Ralph Betza.
2. The Crooked Bishop. Revisiting the Crooked Bishop. Author: Ralph Betza.
3. The Crooked Bishop. Missing description Author: Ralph Betza.
4. Halflings. Pieces that can travel at most half their usual distance. By Ralph Betza.
5. Ideal Values and Practical Values (part 1). A discussion of the values of chess pieces. Author: Ralph Betza.
6. Ideal Values and Practical Values (part 2). More on the value of Chess pieces. Author: Ralph Betza.
7. Ideal Values and Practical Values (part 3). More on the value of Chess pieces. Author: Ralph Betza.
8. Ideal Values and Practical Values (part 4). Additional details on the values of Chess pieces. Author: Ralph Betza.
9. Ideal Values and Practical Values (part 5). A study of the value of Cannon-style jumpers. Author: Ralph Betza.
10. Ideal Values and Practical Values (part 6). A study of the value of the Furlrurlbakking piece. Author: Ralph Betza.
11. Spacious Pieces. Pieces that need a bit more open space to move. Author: Ralph Betza.
12. Thoughts on Chess with Different Pawns. The difficulties of composing Chess with Different Pawns. Author: Ralph Betza.
13. Worse than Worthless. A discussion of pieces with negative value, and the Nattering Nabobs of Negativity! Author: Ralph Betza.

Piececlopedia

1. Crooked Queen. Moves in a diagonal zigzagline or like a Rook. By Ralph Betza.
2. Pancake. A piece that moves and captures like a non-royal King or a Nightrider-style cannon. By Ralph Betza.

Problem

1. A Chess Problem with a Chancellor. Mate in two moves. Author: Ralph Betza. Inventor: Mw. L. Ferris.

Reference

1. Betza Notation. A primer on the leading shorthand for describing variant piece moves. Author: Glenn Overby II and Ralph Betza. Inventor: Ralph Betza.
2. Rule Zero. A base or starting rule set for most Chess variants. By Ralph Betza.

SampleGame

1. Nemoroth. A Visit to. Ralph visits Nemoroth in a dream, and reports a game by its greatest champion. By Ralph Betza.
2. A Remarkable Rookies Game. A sample game featuring the Remarkable Rookies vs the Fabulous FIDEs. By Ralph Betza.
3. A Visit to Nemoroth. Ralph visits Nemoroth in a dream, and reports a game by its greatest champion. By Ralph Betza.
4. The Weakest Endgame. The King vs King endgame from Weakest Chess. By Ralph Betza.

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