http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transcendental_chess
Has anyone ever tried this?
It's similar to Fischer Random but still different in a few ways. One major difference is that white and black do not have the same mirror image arrangement of pieces in the back rank. Both are selected at random with the only requirement being that the bishops have to be on different colors.
There is no option to castle.
The link above explains it. It sounds interesting!
I didn't find TC at the site you posted Kewpie but it's probably out there somewhere. I'll look around for it and post it here if I find something. Anyway....
Before the internet came along I briefly tried postal chess, and during that time I came across transcendental chess but never actually tried it. It did look interesting. I think it was invented around 15-20 years earlier than Fischer Random Chess and has many more starting positions than FRC since black and white are not mirror starting positions. They are seperately random.
This site does offer FRC at this time but I think there is a problem with castling.
TC does not allow castling so that would not be a problem.
The code currently used to set up the pieces for FRC would need to be changed to randomize the starting position for white then randomize again for black instead of mirroring the position so white and black are the same.
With FRC the rooks cannot start with both of them on the same side of the king. TC does not have that requirement.
Bishops must be on different colors which I think is the same for FRC and TC.
However, with TC each player has a unique option on their first move which allows the swapping of any two back-rank pieces instead of just making a normal move with a single pawn or piece. That would have to be coded in.
Other than that first move swap option and no castling, I think the game plays out normally with the same rules and options as in regular chess. Pawn promotion still would work, en passant would work, and moving a pawn one or two squares on first move would still work.
Here's a better and much briefer explanation than my lengthy attempt:
Rules
Randomly, a starting position is generated. The pieces of white are shuffled and put in random order on the squares a1 - h1. Likewise, the pieces of black are shuffled and put in random order on the squares a8 - h8. The setup of black may be different from the setup of white. Only setups where the bishops of each player are on squares of different colors are taken.
To make this fair, games are always played in pairs - the same setup is used in both games. Each player plays white in one of the two games and black in the other.
There is no castling. On each player's first move a player may, instead of making a normal move, use transposition to exchange the positions of two of the pieces in their back row. A transposition that puts the bishops of a player on squares of the same color is not allowed. All other rules are as in orthodox chess.
I have a domain name which I have kept for a variant only site, so the intention is there. I even prototyped a whole load of code (weeks worth of work) 4 years ago for many variants, but never released. It will happen!
edit : Once I've caught up with everything here, which is a never ending and shifting goal. 🙂
