Suicide
From Wildchess Wiki
Suicide Chess is also known as Losing Chess, Antichess and Giveaway (at the Internet Chess Club).
Suicide may be problematic from a moral point of view, but Suicide Chess is fun! Suicide Chess is a chess variant that is very different from Wild Chess versions. In both Regular and Wild Chess, the major purpose of the game is to checkmate your opponent's king. But in Suicide Chess, the major purpose is to lose all of your pieces ... even your king! Both Regular and Wild Chess follow roughly the same rules, but Suicide Chess has many different rules.
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Rules
- If you can capture an opponent's piece, you must do so. If more than one capture is possible, you can choose which one to make.
- Treat the king as if it were just a regular piece. There is no check or checkmate. The king can be captured. And you can promote a pawn to a king (yes, it is possible to have more than one king at a time).
The rules might differ depending on where you play the game. First of all the Internet Chess Club (ICC) allows castling while this is not allowed in the international rules and the Free Internet Chess Server (FICS) rules. Also the rules may differ in case of stalemate. The international rules (and at ICC) say that the stalemated player wins. At FICS the player with the fewest pieces left is won and at AISE (Italian association for chess-like games) it is a draw.
Most games you see at wildchess.org were played at FICS and have therefor the FICS rules of Suicide Chess.
Basic Principles
Although the aim of the game is different, suicide has much more in common with chess strategy, as one might think at the first sight. Getting rid of all your pieces is not a wise strategy. Moreover, the material advantage is one of the most important steps towards success. More material gives you the possibility to surround your opponent with your pieces, thus restricting his safe moves. When there are no more left, i.e when the opponent gets into zugzwang, you should make him take all of your pieces, one by one. Of course, for such successful play, the material advantage is not enough. Space advantage and mobility also play an important role.
Example of zugzwang
The side that has to move will lose.
Openings
We usually divide the game in three parts
- the opening where the opponents confront their knowledge and prepared analysis
- the middlegame where the players are on their own and
- the endgame where theoretical knowledge is again applicable
Just like in chess it is important to develop your pieces during the opening phase. The most common opening is 1.e3 followed by either b5 (called the classical opening), c5 (polish opening), g5 (wild boar attack), b6 (Liardet's opening) or e6 (modern opening). Other playable openings include 1.c3, c4, b3, g3, Nh6, Na6. You have to memorize quite some openings so you will not run into lost ones. Over the years suicide engines like nilatac, Pindakaas, Sjaak (TrojanKnight), ascp and others have contributed a lot by proving certain openings are lost. First moves that are solved are 1.h4, f4, Nf3, Nc3 , d3, d4, e4, h3, b4.
Examples of 1st move losses
1.e4??
A new player might play 1.e4?? after which black plays b5!, followed by 2.Bxf5 Nf6! 3.Bxd7 Nxe4
Now you can easily see how black will make the kill using white's bishop.
1.d4??
Another simple first move loss is 1.d4?? e5! 2.dxe5 Qg5!
Again black will use white's bishop to win.
1.d3??
A bit more complex is 1.d3?? g5! 2.Bxg5 Bg7! 3.Bxe7 Bxb2! 4.Bxd8 Bxa1! 5.Bxc7 Bc3!
Black will use white's N to gain speed, which will lead to a 0-1.
Middlegame
In the middlegame it is important that you try to stay up in material and keep your most important piece, the king. However, you will not evaluate your position by simply counting the pieces. It is not good to have a lot of pieces if the available space is restricted. Hence, you must consider space, mobility and material as three main aspects of winning strategy. There are different opinions on the importance of pawns. A passed pawn is what can win you the endgame, however pawns are also slow pieces which can cause a loss in endgame. Most engines give a big bonus in the eval for a passed pawn and a penalty for doubled pawns, since they are a major target in endgame.
Endgame
At the end there are generally no obstacles and the pieces can develop their true values. Roughly speaking, we have
R > K = Q = B > N > P
By this scale, the player with more pieces and less pawns is in a better position. The goal of the endgame is therefor to promote your pawns to some useful pieces which will remain on the board. The keyword in elementary endgame is once again zugzwang.
Two piece endgames
R/B/Q vs. R/B/Q
In endgames that involve only linepieces (rook, bishop, queen) the game always ends in one move with the exception of opposite colored bishops, which is drawn.
B vs. R, black moves and loses.
N vs. N
An interesting endgame is knight vs. knight. When they are on opposite colored squares, whoever has to move will lose. And of course if they are on the same colored squares, whoever has to move will win.
N vs. N, whoever moves wins.
K/Q/R/B vs. N
With some trivial exceptions, this endgame is lost for the knight. Because the knight its limited mobility it can easily be put into zugzwang.
B vs. N, black moves and loses
K vs. R
This endgame is won for the rook. The rook has to corner the king so it is put into zugzwang as shown below.
K vs. R, white moves and loses
K/B vs. K
With one non trivial exception this game is drawn. The exception is shown below.
B vs. K, black moves and loses.
K vs. Q
Again with some trivial exceptions, this game is won for the queen. The queen can easily put the king into zugzwang as shown below.
K vs. Q, white moves and loses.
Sources
With permission I have used the FICS helpfile on suicide chess and a book draft from Vladica Andrejic as resources to write this article.
External links
- Suicide Chess Database
- Nilatac's Opening Book
- The complete review of suicide chess by Fabrice Liardet
- An interesting look on suicide chess by Vladica Andrejic
