"Suicide Chess" (2016)

"Suicide Chess" (By Edward Scimia, Chess Expert) Thread 160198

"Try to think back to the days when you first started playing chess. You'll likely remember games where you virtually gave your pieces away to your opponent; before you knew it, your opponent had all your pieces, and your poor king was left all alone (and was likely soon checkmated).

In suicide chess, this nightmare situation is actually the goal of the game! The object is to lose all of your pieces, leaving yourself with nothing left on the board. It's easy to understand why this game is often called "antichess," as all of the normal rules of strategy and tactics are turned on their head. Suicide chess is one of the most popular family of chess variants around, with several different versions of the game being played around the world and on online chess servers.

In suicide chess, your pieces will move and capture just as they do in a regular chess game. However, there is one critical rule that drastically changes how the game is played: if a capture is available to you, then you must capture one of your opponent's pieces. It is often the case that you'll have the option to capture more than one of your opponent's pieces; in that case, you can choose to capture any piece you like.

Another critical change in suicide chess involves the king. Obviously, if you must lose all of your pieces to win the game, you'll need to lose your king at some point as well. As such, in most versions of Suicide chess,check and checkmate simply do not exist. Your king functions as a normal piece, and can be captured and traded like any other piece on the board. In addition, there are often other rule changes; in some versions of the game, castling isn't allowed, and pawns are sometimes allowed to promote to kings as well.

The winner of the game is the first player to lose all of their pieces. However, there are several situations in which a draw is possible. Namely, if it is impossible to capture the final pieces (such as when opposite-colored bishops remain on the board), the game will end in a draw. Other draws in Suicide chess mirror those in standard chess, such as agreed draws, repetition of position, and so forth.

One interesting possibility is that of stalemate. If either player cannot make a legal move, the game is clearly over, but rules vary on how to determine the outcome. In some rule sets, the game is a draw; others give the win to the stalemated player or to the player with fewer pieces remaining.

Suicide Chess Strategy

Believe it or not, suicide chess actually has a rich heritage of strategic knowledge, and a lot of effort has been put into finding the best openings and general principles of play for this variant. The following are just a few of the many strategic insights that have been developed for suicide chess!

First, keep in mind that many openings for white lose on the spot against correct play - sometimes, even as early as the first move! For example, known losing first moves for white include 1.d4, 1.e4, 1.Nf3, 1.Nc3, 1.d3, 1.f4, 1.b4, 1.h4 and 1.h3. If you'd prefer not to lose right off the bat, 1.e3 is a good choice, with e6 being an excellent reply for black.

As the game continues, some of the strategy employed by strong suicide chess players may seem counter-intuitive. For instance, it's often correct to capture the opponent's pieces in order to gain a material advantage, even though that would seem to suggest that you're "losing" the game! This is due to the fact that having more pieces will allow you to have more "safe" moves that don't lead to disaster (particularly true when you have your king). Once a player is down to just one or two pieces, their options are heavily restricted, and it is often the case that they can't escape a string of captures that allows the other player to win the game." http://chess.about.com/od/chessvariants/a/Suicide-Chess.html
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Request: Please consider contributing a few of your own Suicide Chess Strategies and Tactics for the benefit of all Red Hot Pawn Members who may also enjoy a change of pace from Standard Chess and/or Fischer Random960.. Thanks. Regards, GB

Originally posted by Grampy Bobby
[b]"Suicide Chess" (By Edward Scimia, Chess Expert) Thread 160198

"Try to think back to the days when you first started playing chess. You'll likely remember games where you virtually gave your pieces away to your opponent; before you knew it, your opponent had all your pieces, and your poor king was left all alone (and was likely s ...[text shortened]... y also enjoy a change of pace from Standard Chess and/or Fischer Random960.. Thanks. Regards, GB[/b]

I had a friend that got me into suicide chess. One day I looked up the opening theory of the game and I found out that 1.e4 loses by force. I played it against him and then he never wanted to play me again.

1.e4?? b5 2.Bxb5 Nf6 3.Bxd7 Nxe4 and White loses no matter which capture he chooses:

4.Bxe8 Qxd2 5.Qxd2 (if 5.Bxf7 Qxc1 6.Qxc1 Nxf2 7.Kxf2 Rg8 etc.) 5...Nxd2 6.Kxd2 Rg8 7.Bxf7 c5 8.Bxg8 g6 9.Bxh7 e5 10.Bxg6 e4 11.Bxe4 Nc6 12.Bxc6 Bb7 13.Bxb7 Rc8 14.Bxc8 a6 15.Bxa6 c4 16.Bxc4 Ba3 17.Nxa3 0–1

Or 4.Bxc8 Nxd2 5.Bxd2 Qxd2 6.Qxd2 Na6 7.Bxa6 Rc8 8.Bxc8 f5 9.Bxf5 Rg8 10.Bxh7 c5 11.Bxg8 e6 12.Bxe6 c4 13.Bxc4 a6 14.Bxa6 g5 15.Qxg5 Kd8 16.Qxd8 Be7 17.Qxe7 0–1

Sorry can't post PGNs because it isn't a legal game, it ignores checks.