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This page is written by the game's inventor, Larry Smith.

Cheaters' Chess

This is a form of play which was developed with my great-nephew Justis. It utilized the Mad Queen variant(FIDE), but may be applied to any game.

Rules

At any time during the player's turn that the opponent becomes distracted, not paying attention to the field, the player may do one of the following:

1. Move an opposing piece to any vacant adjacent cell.
2. Swap the positions of two adjacent pieces, regardless of owner.

These pieces must have been previously developed from their setup position. The moves may not result in check for either player. And the opponent cannot have actually seen the move occur.

This constitutes as a move for the player and must occur during their legal turn, allowing the opponent to respond to the created position.

The accomplishment of this form of move is usually announced with the phrase 'Your Turn!' and an innocent smile.

Notes

This can actually get very interesting. Creating field positions which are difficult to recover from.

One common tactic is to push one of the opponent's bishops onto another diagonal pattern. Or backwarding a Pawn.

Also figuring out ways to distract your opponent. Once, my great-nephew got a cousin to hit me on the back of the head with a Nerf football. I got his mother to call him into another room.

And the ability to exercise this particular form of play more than once during a game can be rare.

Of course, for those who desire a guaranteed form of play, they could use a standard pack of playing cards including the Jokers. Shuffle the deck before the game and place it within easy reach between the players. At each turn, the player draws a card. If a Joker is drawn, they now have the privilege of a 'cheat' at this turn or any subsequent. Once the privilege has been exercised, the Joker is discarded with the other drawn cards. Once both Jokers are drawn and used, the cards are re-shuffled and the play continues.


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By Larry L. Smith.
Web page created: 2008-11-16. Web page last updated: 2008-11-16