Capablanca chess, also called Knighted chess,Gollon, John (1985). Chess variations Ancient, Regional, and Modern, p. 219. Tuttle Publishing is a family of over twenty Western chess variants which incorporate two new pieces. The family includes Capablanca chess (usually played on a 10×8 board, but Capablanca preferred a 10×10 boardhttps://www.chesshistory.com/winter/extra/variants.html), Seirawan chess (on a 8×8 board), Embassy chess, Grand chess (10×10 board), and Gothic chess. The two new pieces combine the powers of knight with that of bishop or rook, hence the term "knighted chess" as used by Cazaux & Knowlton.Cazaux & Knowlton (2017), pp. 251-274.The term is also used in Variant Chess magazine article, see: Variant Chess, Volume 1, Issue 6, April June 1991, pp 67-73.Pritchard, D. B. (2007), p. 181.
The new compound pieces are the archbishop or princess which combines moves of a bishop and a knight, and the chancellor or empress which combines moves of a rook and a knight. These new pieces (which go by various other names depending on the variant) allow new strategies and possibilities that provide an interesting change to the game of chess while also retaining the original style and aesthetic. For example, the archbishop by itself can checkmate a lone king in a corner (when placed diagonally with one square in between). A few variants also add another compound piece, the amazon (queen+knight).
The first knighted chess variant was introduced by Italian chess player Pietro Carrera in his 1617 book Il Gioco de gli Scacchi (The Game of Chess).Foster, Ben. Chancellor Chess, or The New Game of Chess (1889), p. 5. Various similar games appear throughout the 18th and 19th centuries with the new knighted pieces. In the 20th century, World Chess Champion José Raúl Capablanca (1888–1942) also promoted a knighted chess variant now called Capablanca chess. Capablanca was concerned with how high-level chess was overly reliant on extensive memorization and study of chess openings and their variations. He feared that eventually most high-level games would end in draws because of this. This threat of "draw death" for chess was his main motivation for developing and promoting a new chess variant.Cazaux & Knowlton (2017), p. 258. Later board game designers like Christian Freeling also attempted to promote different knighted chess variants.
Several chess grandmasters played and commented on knighted chess variants throughout the 20th century. Alexander Alekhine is reported to have played Neo-chess. The American grandmaster Yasser Seirawan designed his own variant to be played on a standard chessboard (Seirawan chess). The Soviet grandmaster Victor Korchnoi is known to have enjoyed playing Janus Chess, and is quoted as having said "I like playing Janus Chess because one can show more creativity than in normal chess."Pritchard (2007), p. 124.
Early variants
Carrera's chess
In 1617, the Syracusan priest and chess player Pietro Carrera (1573–1647) published a book Il Gioco degli Scacchi (The Game of Chess), which contained a description of a chess variant played on an 8×10 board, which he appears to be using for the purpose of conserving the classical chess structure while inserting the new pieces.Cazaux & Knowlton (2017), p. 251. He placed new pieces between a rook and a knight. Carrera called them the campione ("champion", called the chancellor in Capablanca chess) and centauro ("centaur", archbishop in Capablanca chess). The "champion" combines the movement of the rook and knight while the centaur combines the bishop and knight movements. Of these, the new piece Chess ideally wants is the weaker centaur, having it that pawns are easier to get out of the way of diagonals than to get out of the way of files.
The centaur was placed on the and champion on the , these being pieces which he appears to have invented for the purpose of the book, between which the centaur that combines the bishop and knight movements appears more clearly to be his invention, as he mentions previously odds where the weaker player’s king or queen has the knight’s move and it is logical to assume he might merely have overlooked the usage of odds where the weaker player’s (queen’s) rook has the knight’s move as a weaker version of the Amazon odds."Del vantaggio del Recavallo", "Del vantaggio della Donnacavallo" (Book 4, ch 12–13; "Of the odds of the King-Knight", "Of the odds of the Queen-Knight")
”del gioco nuovo, nel quale entrano due nuovi Pezzi ritrovati dall’Autore” (Tortelli, Mario; p.514; “of the new game into which enter two new Pieces recovered by the Author”)
His likely primary motivation for the design was either the limitations of opening theory in this time or that he was just following the logic of Pedro Damiano and Ruy López de Segura that already assumed the logic of chess playing out to the game being about the second player’s response to the King’s or queen’s pawn opening, and even deeper, the first player’s response to the second’s immediate defense against them establishing the ideal pawn center, to its inevitable conclusion or that he considered it improper to play with a fairy piece, specifically a royal crowned Knight, merely by way of handicap and he was not as concerned with avoiding structural weaknesses in the new game’s starting position created by a potential new piece standing on a given file, as with the archbishop between the knight and the rook leaving its own pawn unprotected.
Carrera used the names Centauro (centaur) instead of archbishop, and Campione (champion) instead of chancellor. H.J.R. Murray incorrectly described the moves of the Centauro (actually, bishop + knight) and Campione (rook + knight). Coincidentally, he could have placed the doubleton of Italian or Spanish Draughts, games which he even mentioned in passing in course of discussing the origin of chess,“quel gioco, che i siciliani chiamano marella, e gli spagnuoli el juego de las damas” (p.35, The game that the Sicilians call marella and the Spaniards el juego de las damas) between the knight and the rook and left the new piece’s pawn unprotected from anything but itself, thus improving marginally upon placing the archbishop there. Though he was a good chess theoretician, he appears strangely unconcerned about the theoretical benefits and detriments of each possible setup, and the major theoretical detriment of the setup he chose is that the archbishop is thus mainly important to the opening theory of the game in the negative sense that it is necessary to get it out of the way of queenside castling, that is, when playing his variant adapted to modern rules.
Other early variants Another early knighted chess variant was played in 18th century India. This "Hyderabad decimal chess" was first described in a 1790s manuscript from Hyderabad. It was later described in Murray’s 1913 History of Chess (pp. 346-347). The game included three new knighted pieces: one wazir (bishop+knight), one zurāfa (queen+knight) and two dabbābas (rook+knight) and was played on a 10×10 board.Markov, Georgi. (2022). Three Large Chess Variants from India and Germany: a note on their rules. Board Game Studies Journal. 16. 1-16. 10.2478/bgs-2022-0017.
The 19th century saw further similar variants with extra pieces developed. Das Schachspiel, seine Gattungen und Abarten (The Game of Chess, its Types and Varieties, 1840) by Ludwig Tressau of Leipzig, the first modern book on chess variants, discusses two similar chess variants with knighted pieces: Kaiserspiel and Sultanspiel. Kaiserspiel was played on a 10×10 board with two additional pieces, one commander (queen+knight) and one adjutant” (bishop+knight). Sultanspiel meanwhile expanded the board to 11×11 and added the marshal (rook+knight).Cazaux & Knowlton (2017), p. 256.
In 1874, the English chess player Henry Bird (known as the inventor of the f4 Bird's Opening) proposed a further variant on Carrera's game in an issue of the City of London Chess Magazine. The only significant difference was the opening setup. The new pieces were now between the bishops and the royal pair, the archbishop close to the king, the chancellor close to the queen. The queen's bishop's pawn is not protected in the initial setup. Bird used the names equerry instead of archbishop, and guard instead of chancellor. The theoretical benefit of this setup is that the new pieces’ pawns are thus very important to the opening theory of the game, equally to the king’s and queen's pawns. This makes the chancellor‘s pawn a pair for the queen's pawn as leading to a more strategically oriented game from the nature of the chancellor.
There were also various other lesser known European chess variants that also slightly enlarged the board and introduced knighted pieces. One of these was a chess variant introduced by John Manners, 3rd Duke of Rutland (1696–1779), which used a 10×14 squares board with the following extra pieces: the concubine (combines rook and knight), two crowned rooks (rooks with the added power of taking a diagonal step), two extra bishops, an extra knight, and six extra pawns. This game became popular among several leading players of the time like André Danican Philidor and Abraham Janssen.Cazaux & Knowlton (2017), p. 253
The chancellor piece also appeared in Benjamin R. Foster's chancellor chess variant played on a 9×9 board. First publicized in the St. Louis Globe-Democrat (12 February 1887), which states that the invention "created a furore in the chess world heretofore unknown." Foster published a booklet promoting and explaining the game in 1889.Pritchard (2007), pp. 121-122.
Capablanca chess
The Cuban chess master José Raúl Capablanca (1888–1942) also promoted his own "Capablanca chess" (or Capablanca's chess) variant in a series of talks, interviews and articles.Pritchard (2007), p. 122. These suggestions appeared as early as a 1926 article in the Cuban Revista Bimestre Cubana. Capablanca chess attracted some attention due to its promotion by one of the world's greatest chess players at the time, but it still failed to reach widespread popularity.
The main impulse behind Capablanca's promotion of this variant was his belief that high-level chess was becoming too reliant on memorization and "encyclopedic knowledge" of chess openings and positions. Capablanca feared that this would eventually lead to most high-level games ending in forced draws or at least becoming too reliant on following prepared opening variations learned by rote. This concern was also shared by his friend Emanuel Lasker according to Lasker's own Mein Wettkampf mit Capablanca.
Capablanca proposed two opening setups for Capablanca chess. His final revision placed the archbishop between the and ; the chancellor between the and .
In Capablanca chess, the king moves three squares when castling instead of moving two squares as in standard chess. A pawn can promote to archbishop or chancellor in addition to the regular promotion options in standard chess. Unlike orthodox chess, each king, instead of each queen, starts on a square of its own color (the white king on a light square; the black king on a dark square).
Capablanca initially experimented with a 10×10 board size with a different initial setup and where pawns could advance up to three squares on their first move. After some later play-testing however, he also promoted a variant on a 10×8 board. Edward Lasker wrote: ... I played many test games with Capablanca, and they rarely lasted more than twenty or twenty-five moves. We tried boards of 10×10 squares and 10×8 squares, and we concluded that the latter was preferable because hand-to-hand fights start earlier on it.