Atomic Chess

"Atomic chess is a chess variant in which any capture also destroys the capturing piece (or pawn) and any piece (but NOT pawns) in a one square radius (horizontal, vertical, or diagonal). There is no chain reaction - only direct captures detonate. For captures en passant, ground-zero of the explosion is the square on the sixth rank upon which the capturing pawn lands.
Win by capturing or destroying your opponent's king without simultaneously destroying your own king. You may not make a move which destroys your own king. Check and checkmate are not recognized; you may move into check, castle out of check, or castle through check."

We found this chess variant with EveRyDay a few weeks ago. It was a lot of fun to play it in 1 1. Here's one of our earlier games.
I was white.



1. d4 d6
2. e4 Nf6
3. c3 Bg4
4. f3



4... Bh5
5. g4 Bg6
6. Qa5 c6



7. d5 Qb6
8. Kd1 Qxb2



9. dxc6 Nc6
10. Bb5



10... Rc8
11. Bxc6 Rc6
12. Ne2 Nd7
13. Nd4 Ne5
14. h4 Nc4
15. Qxc4



15... d5
16. exd5 e5
17. Re1 f6



18. f4 Bf7
19. fxe5 Kd8
20. Re8 Kc7



And I kept checking him saving the game.

21. Rc8 Kb6
22. Rc6 Ka5
23. Ra6 Kb5
24. Ra5 Kc4
25. Ra4 Kd3
26. Rd4 Ke3
27. Re4 Kf3



1/2-1/2

I think its a very nice variant that everyone should go and try!🙂

-MA

I'm probably the best atomic player on these forums. In fact, if it wasn't for atomic, I could probably have hit expert by now. That being said, a few thoughts:
1) After white plays f3, there is no need to retreat your bishop. If he wants to take the time to take your bishop off during the opening, let him do it; while pawns still have a general value of 1 in this game, minors drop down to about 1.5 or 2.
2) At the end of the game, I wouldn't have taken a draw with black until white had demonstrated that he knew how to draw the game. The only way for white to draw the final position is to move his king closer to the a-file. Otherwise, black can play Ke2! This method of "locking" kings is extremely important in atomic-- if you're in an ending with "locked" kings and one side has just a queen, the win cannot be forced.

Originally posted by randolph
I'm probably the best atomic player on these forums. In fact, if it wasn't for atomic, I could probably have hit expert by now. That being said, a few thoughts:
1) After white plays f3, there is no need to retreat your bishop. If he wants to take the time to take your bishop off during the opening, let him do it; while pawns still have a general value of 1 ...[text shortened]... n an ending with "locked" kings and one side has just a queen, the win cannot be forced.

Sorry if I came off a little high-handed. It was just exciting to be knowledgeable about something for once.

We could have an actual conversation about it. I kinda like the variant. I enjoy the three checks win one more, though.