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This page is written by the game's inventor, John Lewis.

Chess 4.5

Chess 4.5 is a way to enable players of various strengths to play on a more equal footing. It allows some players to avoid 'bookish' openings while giving bad players a handicapped start.

Setup

The board is set up as usual, with the exception that neither player's colour has been determined yet.

Randomly one player is chosen to make 4.5 moves. Five for White and four for Black. All moves must be legal moves.

The second player now has choice of colour, with whichever player gets Black to move next.

Rules

While not strictly against the rules, creating a mate as the first play is tantamount to resigning, since the second player need only take White to win.

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By John Kipling Lewis.
Web page created: 2007-10-06. Web page last updated: 2007-10-06