Chess Variants Evening
21 September 2006
The annual Chess Variants Evening took place on Thursday 21 September in the club room in 2MS. A total of five club members turned up. This year's variants were:
• Atomic Chess
• Double Move Chess
• Extinction Chess
• Italian Progressive Chess
• Losing Chess
• Magnetic Chess
• Three-Check Chess
• Ultima.
A description of the rules for each variant can be found on the Chess Variants website. Some of them were easier to play than others. For example, Losing Chess lends itself well to a blitz format, but Ultima and Magnetic Chess would be almost impossible.
Chess Variants are great levellers. Some people turn out to be naturally suited to particular kinds. Keith Dunmore won all but one of his games at Losing Chess. James Toon scored 100% with Italian Progressive Chess and Three-Check Chess, as did Peter Biggs at Extinction Chess, and David Lacey and Richard Fries at Magnetic Chess.
Too much of this, however, can leave you feeling like you've binged on Turkish Delight.
We kept records (though these may be incomplete) and the final table is below. There was no advance discussion of how to determine the winner. Keith had the highest number of points and James had the highest percentage score. However, in the spirit of the evening, let's leave the last word to the Dodo in Alice in Wonderland: "Everybody has won, and all must have prizes!"
| Name | Played |
Points |
% Score |
| P Biggs | 13 |
6.5 |
50 |
| K Dunmore | 19 |
12.5 |
66 |
| R Fries | 16 |
4.5 |
28 |
| D Lacey | 12 |
4.5 |
38 |
| J Toon | 16 |
11 |
69 |