Fair-Chess

This is a rules file for Zillions of Games, a Windows program that will let you play any puzzle or strategy board game you can feed it the rules to. With Zillions-of-Games installed, this rules file will let you play this game against your computer.

A new little  Chess application , *Fair-Chess*
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***  Fair-Chess (a sort of handicap chess) version 0.15
NB To run the game you need the 'Zillions of games' program
Having been interested in chess for two decades now, i designed a chess variant  in which opening knowledge is so not important anymore. And to make it a more 'fair' game between players of different playing ability, I devised a handicap system which will make playing more fun for both 
sides,  both the weaker and the stronger player. It will result in 
longer  games, more practice in middle game and endgames, and will be 
much more fun. It might revolutionize the chess world.
How its works: depending on the rating difference (eg. human vs computer player), which you can choose via the menu a layout is chosen with a certain handicap (eight different levels, from a pawn to rook plus knight handicap). If you set the zillions engine at average playing strenght, we estimate it will play at about 1700 rating. For more info, see the included readme file. NB now two versions, homeplayer (< 1300) and clubplayer (> 1350); for the latter version it is recommended to set the playing strenght of the engine at max (about 2200).
NB  to load this specific game Fair- chess in 'zillions-of-games'
you need to have a valid license for Zillions of Games (2.0b)
to play it, and then load the 'rule'-file fairchess.zrf 
into  the Zillions program, or -after installation of zillions
just double-click the fair-chess.zrf file.
Installation Notes: unzip in your zillions directory. it is using custom graphics, which you can  copy into your images directory if you want.
(otherwise it will try to find the images file). 
And the differences will be used in setup the initial positions (
with less material for the better player. Such a 'handicap' method is common in eg. the (physical) game of golf, the board game Go, but it has never been worked out properly for Chess. Until NOW .. !
And it will have great educational value, playing will be much more fun
for beginners, children, and so on; also advanced players will like it
because it requires less memorization of opening theory and will lead
to longer games, with more practice of the endgame. 
So it is an awesome training tool for 'normal' chess up till master level.
NB the homeplayer version is aimed at beginner level; at higher level, the indicated rating differences for the various handicaps will become bigger.
So for the clubplayer version the setups are different, and it is 
recommended to set the zillions engine at max strength (menu play C etc)
For a more detailed description, see the
readme-fc.txt file included in the .zip file.

Download Instructions

Instructions on downloading this Zillions file:

• Download the .zip file
• Extract the contents of the .zip file to your Zillions of Games folder
• Be sure you have the "Use folder names" checkbox checked when you extract the files.