Fantasy theories about Chess, Draughts and How to combine them =)

[Sheilawisz]

Hello everyone!

As some of you know, I like board games and I have dedicated special attention to Chess. Then I decided to become a Draughts player instead and liked it much better, but I still practice both of them in my continued attempts to become a good player.

It turns out that I am a bad player in either Chess or Draughts, yeah, really bad...

However, my Fantasy storyteller imagination has started to create theories about background stories for both games, and the idea of this thread is to organize the stories and share them here.

Chess - a background story by Sheilawisz

The Kingdoms White and Black are neighbors, usually keeping good relations with each other. The problem came when both Kings decided to take their entire Court and Guards on vacation at the same time, without realizing the inconvenience that this would cause.

Their favorite vacational resort is a famous place called Cheeseland, everybody wants to go there... The only way to reach this place is to cross the Board, but only one Team can cross once every month and then it closes.

The White King and the Black King booked their visit to the Board at the same day because of an administrative error from the Cheeseland staff. The only way to decide who gets to cross to Cheeseland is to fight, because everybody wants that special vacation really bad!

The loser team will be sent back home and they will have to wait thirty days for their crossing.

1- The Kings: Both White and Black monarchs were really looking forward to party time, so they began drinking even before arriving at the Board. This explains why the Kings are confused and can only move one square every turn. They should be allowed some time to sober up, but instead they give orders to begin the fight immediately.

2- The Queens: It's common for the Queens of these lands to suffer constant headaches because of the loud castle parties, so they began to take an experimental drug a few weeks before the travel. The mysterious drug did not solve the headaches and bad humor, but it managed to give both of them fighting superpowers explaining why they are the strongest in the battle.

3- The Rooks: Why is it that a Castle tower can move faster than a Knight with a horse? The answer is that there are Witches inhabiting nearby the Board, and they put a spell on the rocky buildings so they become alive by dark and inexplicable reasons.

4- The Pawns: They are just Castle guards hoping to party at Cheeseland for weeks. When they promote, their transformations are caused by the same mysterious Witches mentioned before. The Kings are not really disturbed by the prospect of having multiple clones of the original Queen, but it's weird.

5- The Knights: They are part of the Court strictly as bodyguards, but when they cross they will be allowed to party freely like everyone else. Plus, the famous cheese of Cheeseland is very nutritious and good for their horses.

6- The Bishops: They are there to make sure that the Kings do not overindulge in the parties, and to tell the Queens to take their experimental drug every day.

There you have it! That's my own background story for the game of Chess. I am preparing another story for Draughts, which is coming tomorrow if everything goes alright.

What do you think?

 

[Tom]

This is hilarious! I would so read a story about it if you chose to write it!

 

[Jabrosky]

I'd say a board game is every bit as valid for inspiring fiction as anything else.

I wonder what the Black and White descriptors could reference? Maybe one resembles Europeans and the other Africans?

 

[Tom]

How about Tolkienien elves (white) versus Drow (black)?

 

[Sheilawisz]

Thanks for your comments!

Tom, I have considered to write such a story for a very long time. In the story, the Chess Kingdoms would invade the Draughts world (a vast region composed by mountains and wild forests), and a war would take place. This story would reflect the historic and bitter rivalry that exists between both games and their players, turned into exciting Fantasy warfare.

Jabrosky, in the story the only difference between the White and the Black Kingdoms would be the color of their castles, traditional clothing, armor and weapons in general. They would be very close to each other culturally, and I plan to describe them as a Fantasy-like medieval culture.

Now, before writing the Background story for Draughts I want to give some information about the games:

In the English language, the games of this family are known as Draughts in England and Australia. The North American name is Checkers, but there is a big difference between American Checkers (which is identical to English Draughts) and the Canadian game, which is simply a larger version of the European continental game.

Draughts is not a single game, but a large family of games comparable to the Chess family.

The American Pool Checkers is almost identical to the minor version of the European game (minor polish), and both games are comparable to Shashki, or Russian Draughts, which is the one that I love and practice everyday. Some versions are played on a 10x10 board with one hundred squares, and the Canadian game is played on a 12x12.

Most people do not know that the Draughts games were the most appreciated and dominant for centuries, being replaced in popularity only when Chess became fashionable at the start of the twentieth century. However, Chess is starting to lose ground to other games, and personally I believe that the Draughts family will return to power one day.

And now, the background story!

Draughts - a Fantasy story by Sheilawisz

Once upon a time there was a far, far away land where the forests would grow and prosper between high and snowy mountains. These woods were inhabited by many species of creatures, but it was the Dragyen Foxes which were the dominant and happiest of them all.

The Dragyen Foxes came in two colors, brown and black, and normally they spent their lives hunting smaller creatures and jumping from one tree to another... They all loved jumping, it was their greatest talent and they used it to ambush and surprise their enemies and prey.

It happened that one day the foxes discovered a wide field between the highest mountains, where they found mysterious diamonds which soon proved to possess great powers... the diamonds could transform any common fox into a huge and powerful wolf, a creature capable of incredible hunting and performing the greatest jumps of all.

The crystals were few and they took some time to regenerate after being used, so instead of rushing to take them all, the foxes decided to organize by teams and compete for them in a battle of jumping, courage, strategy and skills...

They all wanted to become big bad wolves, and so the game of the foxes was born.

This is the material that I would use for the story combining both worlds, but I still have to figure out why the Chess Kingdoms would seek to invade the Dragyen forests...

What do you think?

 

[Legendary Sidekick]

Why is it that a Castle tower can move faster than a Knight with a horse? The answer is that there are Witches inhabiting nearby the Board, and they put a spell on the rocky buildings so they become alive by dark and inexplicable reasons.

Aww… and all this time I thought it was because the horses didn't have feet.

 

[Ireth]

In the English language, the games of this family are known as Draughts in England and Australia. The North American name is Checkers, but there is a big difference between American Checkers (which is identical to English Draughts) and the Canadian game, which is simply a larger version of the European continental game.

Draughts is not a single game, but a large family of games comparable to the Chess family.

The American Pool Checkers is almost identical to the minor version of the European game (minor polish), and both games are comparable to Shashki, or Russian Draughts, which is the one that I love and practice everyday. Some versions are played on a 10x10 board with one hundred squares, and the Canadian game is played on a 12x12.

Apparently I've been playing checkers wrong my whole life. I was taught to play it on 8x8 boards, like chess. Never heard of a 12x12 checkerboard before.

 

[Tom]

Apparently I've been playing checkers wrong my whole life. I was taught to play it on 8x8 boards, like chess. Never heard of a 12x12 checkerboard before.

I don't play checkers a whole lot, but I learned to play on a 12x12 board. My dad's side of the family calls checkers damespiel, which is the game's German name, but we usually shorten it to just dame. I also learned to play German checkers, or Deutsches Damespiel, which is played on an 8x8 board. I've forgotten how to play it, unfortunately, but it's pretty similar to American checkers.

All in all, though, my ADD acts up when I play checkers. I usually referee for my sister and brother, who are little checkers and chess fiends. If left to their own devices, my brother would cry foul at every move my sister tried to make.

 

[Legendary Sidekick]

Chinese Chess (Xiangqi, pronounced [shiang-chi]) is a lot of fun.

It has (as you can see) more non-pawns.

FRONT ROWS
Soldiers (x5) move forward only, and can move sideways after crossing the river (middle of board).
Cannons (x2) move like rooks, but to attack they jump over one piece and land on another. The piece a cannon "jumps" can be friend of foe.

BACK ROW (starting at corner)
Chariots (x2) move like rooks.
Horses (x2) move like knights, EXCEPT it's straight, then diagonal. Same destination as a knight, but the path can be blocked from the front, side or back.
Elephants (x2) move 2 spaces diagonally. If the path is blocked from 1 space away, the elephant cannot pass or attack the piece.
Advisors (x2) move 1 space diagonally and are confined to the fortress (the X). There are only 5 places a mandarin can be.
General (x1) moves 1 space forward, backward or sideways. He is confined to the fortress, but he can put the opposing general in check as if he's a chariot/rook. This allows one general to confine the other to one side of his own fortress!



EDIT - Also, note that the pieces are on the intersections of the squares. So even though you see 64 squares, there are 90 places to move.

 

[Sheilawisz]

Hi Legendary, thanks for this information about the Xiangqi game.

I have heard that the Eastern games of the Chess family are deeper, slower and in general better games than European Chess. Shogi is famous for its Drop Rule, meaning that you can use captured pieces as your own, and another curious difference is the rectangular board that it uses instead of a square one.

The ancient Persian game Shatranj is the direct ancestor of European Chess. I found a tutorial about it and I really want to play it someday, because it's a slower game and, at least from my point of view, it makes way more sense than Chess: How to play Shatranj.

This is a list of the stuff that I find illogical about Chess:

1- The obsession with the Checkmate rule: This is what causes so many Draws in the high levels of play. European Chess is all about Checkmate, to the point that a totally lopsided match can end in a Draw simply because a King was immobilized instead of Checkmated. The game needs to include other ways to win, like Frozen King (immobilization) or by capturing all of your opponent's pieces except the King, like it happens in Shatranj.

2- The Check rule: The fact that the King must escape from any threat, so you have to tell your opponent that the King is under Check when it happens. The game should allow a surprising and sudden capture of the King in case the player missed the danger, which would end the match without more complicated rules and situations.

3- The overpowered Queen: Why is the Queen so freaking powerful? The game would be better with a weaker and yet agile Queen, something more similar to a limited Bishop or a Knight.

4- The Rooks: No matter how hard I try, I still cannot accept the idea that a rocky building actually moves, and moves so fast. This piece should be renamed War Elephant or something like that.

5- The Promotions: The Pawns should not be allowed to promote into new Queens. Come on, multiple Queens? Please! That is absurd. The promotions should generate new Knights, and never Rooks, Bishops or Queens!

6- The weak King: The most important piece of the game should be a little more powerful. This would enhance the game's battle components over the checkmate obsession.

I already have some good ideas to explain the war between the Chess Kingdoms and the Dragyen Forest in my Fantasy story, but I'll talk about them in my next post. For now, I wanted to share the link to Wikipedia's excellent article about the Draughts family:

Learn all about Draughts!

 

[Sheilawisz]

Hello everyone! Well, finally it looks like I have established the background story to explain the reasons of the war.

I want to write the full and real story, but first I would like to receive some feedback in case that you find it interesting. The background idea will be explained in two different posts, please let me know what you think...

An unexpected Visit - War is on the horizon...

It was a nice day of Summer in the White Kingdom, with people chatting as they walked downtown and quite busy as they bought groceries, clothing and medicine at the various markets of the city. The church bells began to call for Mass and birds were singing in the parks, nothing really out of the ordinary was happening that day...

The rumors said that the White Queen had decided to throw a party at the castle, because her husband the King was out of town and she never lost an opportunity like that. Most of the Knights, Bishops and other important people of the Kingdom had been invited already, and everybody at the castle were working on the decorations and everything else.

Mass turned out to be ordinary as well, but when the people emerged from the White Cathedral they were astonished to discover the unknown and alarming creatures that were standing at the middle of the Square...

The first creature was something like a fox, even though the people had never seen a fox so intimidating and large. It walked on two legs and stood as tall as a person, and even though it lacked shoes of any kind, the creature was wearing a long and blue cloak featuring a variety of silver buttons and a hood.

The second creature wore a similar black cloak, but it was a wolf that looked really vicious and stood twelve feet tall... both creatures drew closer to the curious onlookers, and very soon the rumors of this sudden appearance reached the Knights and then other court members at the castle.

It was quite a surprise for everyone to discover that these creatures could talk, even though their voices sounded animal and harsh, and then the White Queen invited both of them to her party that night...

 

[Sheilawisz]

An Unexpected Visit 2

The people of White City were rather alarmed by the presence of these creatures, but the Queen had invited them to her party and she had the final word. She was, after all, always very curious and keen to know more about distant lands beyond the Chess Kingdoms...

Everything was perfect, and the White Castle had not looked so good for many years. The Queen wanted nothing but the best for her party, so most of the city's Knights attended and there were musicians and dancing. They had recently imported cheese and wine from Cheeseland, which was a success, with hundreds of guests chatting and just enjoying the celebration.

The mysterious Fox and the Wolf seemed to be very surprised by the White Kingdom... They were answering the White Queen's questions about the world from which they came, and she was really intrigued as they described every detail of the Dragyen World to her.

Then, disaster happened...

One of the Queen's maids broke a glass by accident, cutting her hand rather deeply. This released a considerable amount of blood on the wooden floor, and there was an instant change in the Fox and the Wolf.

The mysterious creatures became uneasy and violent, the smell of the blood awakening their instincts... The White Queen was confused, but the Fox realized what was just about to happen and it performed an incredible jump to escape from the party through a stained glass window...

The fragments of glass were still falling to the floor when the great black Wolf went on a rampage, there was terror everywhere as the Knights prepared to fight and the Bishops were fast to get the Queen the hell out of there.

When it was over, the Wolf was dead just like twenty castle guards and twelve of the Kingdom's finest Knights...

The White King returned from his travel a few days later. The Queen informed her husband of what had happened, knowing exactly what the King would do... Very soon the Black Kingdom was informed too about the existence of these dangerous creatures and their treasure of magical crystals... War was on the horizon, and there was nothing that could stand on its way.

The Chess armies would march against the Dragyen world...

What do you think?