8 ms·
Duck Chess
- zelphirkalt 4y agoOne of hundreds (thousands?) of chess variants. For more you might be interested in https://www.chessvariants.com/alphabet.html https://www.chessvariants.com/alphabet.html (I am not one of the authors.)
- TheRealNGenius 4y agotoo bad there's no implementation where I can play this online
- aasasd 4y ago> “Chess is a matter of delicate judgement, knowing when to punch and how to duck” Indeed: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chess_boxing https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chess_boxing
- iratewizard 4y agoThe one thing I don't understand is whether or not each chess round is a new game, or if the chess round is paused to start the boxing round. I'm just at the minimum requirement for chess, and not that many of my games end in a draw.
- pigcat 4y agoThe chess game is paused each boxing round. The chess board is carefully lifted out of the boxing ring and brought back after the punching!
- ffhhj 4y agoWhat do they say when a player is defeated, check out?
- VonGuard 4y ago1 move each, then 1 boxing round. Boxing matches used to go on for an obscene number of rounds...
- mmahemoff 4y agoThe chess round is 3 minutes. Like a normal chess match, each player has a clock and total time limit. 3m chess round, 3m boxing round, 3m chess round, 3m boxing round, etc
- pontusrehula 4y agoSomeone needs to combine this variant with four player chess.
- jamal-kumar 4y agoIt's such a funny sport. It's like serious slavs vs germans mostly and then you look in the audience and there's RZA rubbing his chin
- ycombinete 4y agowho is RZA?
- jamal-kumar 4y agohttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zKF3qcJh45Y https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zKF3qcJh45Y this guy, the wu-tang clan's chief producer
- sneak 4y agohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RZA https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RZA
- cassepipe 4y agoMember of the Wu Tang Clan, the band behind Da Mystery of Chessboxin Super parent's link is about a sport called chess boxing
- rendall 4y agoWeird. I highlight RZA, tap "web search" and he's the first result. Less work than taking the time to tap out "who is RZA?"
- joelthelion 4y agoBut then all the other readers benefit.
- rendall 4y agoThis is true. It's also more social.
- aasasd 4y ago
- gleenn 4y agoThis seems like a pretty simple addition but that probably has profound effects on end-games. Also the fact that it's a duck is pretty adorable.
- gabereiser 4y agoNot to mention the preprogrammed (memorized) series of follow up moves to the move you just made. This basically throws unpredictability in an otherwise predictable set of moves. If I’m thinking of taking your queen, and that action requires me to setup no more than 4 moves to do it, how can I be sure a giant f$&@ duck doesn’t ruin my plans? Brilliant way to keep the game fresh and “in the moment”
- nazavo 4y agoThis is damn genius and seems pretty fun! The fact the new figure is in joint control is mind-blowing and throws most traditional strategies out of the window hahaha
- yarg 4y agoNow I want a chess set with this guy as the duck: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/24/Balaeniceps_rex_-Ueno_Zoo%2C_Tokyo%2C_Japan-8a.jpg https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/24/Balaenic... (I feel it should be grey not yellow.)
- kbyatnal 4y agohah, what a fun variant. Some of the most fun I've ever had playing chess has been "bughouse" (aka tandem chess). It's basically 2v2 chess with the trick being, you and your partner play opposite colors. Whenever you capture a piece, you hand it to your partner, and they can drop it anywhere they like on their board.
- Invictus0 4y agoYou can play this on lichess.org with the crazyhouse variant set.
- Buttons840 4y agoIndeed, you can watch a live game right now, no account needed: https://lichess.org/tv/crazyhouse https://lichess.org/tv/crazyhouse
- icelancer 4y agoOnly 1v1 on there at the moment; Bughouse (2v2) is limited to chess.com (and their implementation is extremely buggy) unfortunately.
- bmacho 4y agogoogle en passant .. it's not that extremely buggy. Once in a while you can't move or something, but then a page refresh solves it. Less than in 1 game out of 1000 games or so. (I just estimated according to the number of my games and memories.)
- icelancer 4y agoI'm referring to starting games - I've had no end of trouble getting 2v2 working properly there.
- stevage 4y agoDoes freechess.org still work? It's had bughouse for decades.
- tartoran 4y agoThis is a fun chess variation. Id like to see this on Lichess.
- rkagerer 4y agoI guess Knights (which can jump the Duck) just became more valuable.
- civilized 4y agoTomorrow: AlphaZero has trained itself to play Duck Chess and has decisively beaten all the world's Duck Chess grandmasters.
- ballenf 4y agoWould be interesting just to add the duck rule to the existing trained model and see how long it takes to adjust.
- civilized 4y agoGame 1000: AlphaZero learns to use the duck against AlphaZero Game 2000: AlphaZero learns to defend against AlphaZero's duck use Game 3000: AlphaZero learns ways around AlphaZero's defenses against AlphaZero's duck use
- jasonjayr 4y agoThe language describing the rules is not 100% clear: > Each player’s turn always consists of two actions: (1) making a standard chess move, and then (2) moving the duck to any empty square on the board. (The duck must be moved – it cannot be left where it is.) You have to make your move, and move the duck. Do you have to do them in that order? (ie, is it legal to move the duck first, then your piece?) I suspect there is an implied "in order" there, otherwise the impact of the duck-block is not as profound. It might be hair splitting, but I've seen rules fights on smaller points! edit: yea, I need to read more carefully. I missed the "and then" which is the clarification I was after. Thank you for pointing that out.
- hammock 4y ago> In passing, we note that if it were Black to move in the above position, he would have an immediate win with Qxg2@f3, followed by capturing White’s king next turn I don’t understand. Since there is no check in duck chess, couldn’t white king just capture black queen (Kxg2) following this move?
- thethirdone 4y agoThe white king would then be taken by the knight.
- rococode 4y agog2 is defended by black's knight, so after Kxg2, black captures the king and wins with Nxg2.
- hammock 4y agoYes but there is no check. So why can’t you move your king into check? You are not moving him into checkmate, after all
- buzzy_hacker 4y agoYou can move your king into check, so white’s move of king takes queen is legal. But, it still is losing because black then plays knight takes king.
- hammock 4y agoThanks I missed the rule where game ends by king capture, not checkmate
- keyle 4y agoSeems like fun, and surprisingly not listed in the list of chess variants. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_chess_variants https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_chess_variants Maybe the duck is putting off the purists.
- function_seven 4y agoYeah, if they lose the duck the game might work ;) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9137736 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9137736
- runarberg 4y agoI thought I had remembered this post as well from way back then, but wasn’t sure it was a duck as well.
- moffkalast 4y agoIt's good that they didn't listen to the guy, he's obviously a quack.
- andrewljohnson 4y agoThis is like pole chess from Piers Anthony books. My buddies and I used to play pole chess a good bit. Each player has a pole, and you can place it or pick it up with a move. Nothing can move to through or capture the pole. It leads to more draws but also weird and fun tactics.
- nfoz 4y agoLove this! Unrelated, but reminds me of another story featuring Chess and a Duck, and also relevant to the HN audience, which relates to the old videogame Battle Chess: https://bwiggs.com/notebook/queens-duck/ https://bwiggs.com/notebook/queens-duck/
- iancmceachern 4y agoI loved battle chess!! The animations were so cool at the time.
- jimt1234 4y agoMe too! Battle Chess is what got me into chess back in the 80s. Apparently there's a new-ish version on Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/200150/Battle_Chess_Game_of_Kings/ https://store.steampowered.com/app/200150/Battle_Chess_Game_...
- clan 4y agoBEWARE: I was tempted to do an impulse buy. Luckily I read the reviews first - they are not favourable. Seems abandoned and buggy.
- KyleBrandt 4y agoAlso for nostalgia - Archon https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archon:_The_Light_and_the_Dark https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archon:_The_Light_and_the_Da...
- JacobAldridge 4y agoI share that story quite often, as an example of practical thinking to manage a manager.
- Gravityloss 4y agoMaybe, originally, chess did have the duck, but when presented to the emperor, he wanted to have it removed. So duck chess is actually now reverting to the pure, original form!
- gorgoiler 4y agoThe creator of this game must clearly have been inspired by another of the 20th century’s great contributions to the dynamic puzzle canon: 1983’s Chuckie Egg: https://i.ytimg.com/vi/E4loQjf7v-M/maxresdefault.jpg https://i.ytimg.com/vi/E4loQjf7v-M/maxresdefault.jpg https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chuckie_Egg https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chuckie_Egg ”Eight levels are played initially under the watch of a giant caged duck. [The player is then] pursued by the freed duck flying around the screen and homing in on him.”
- wly_cdgr 4y agoHaha, best chess mod I've seen
- pwdisswordfish9 4y agoI was hoping for a Battle Chess mod that adds the duck back.
- h2odragon 4y agoBattle Chess needed lasers: https://c64online.com/c64-games/laser-chess/ https://c64online.com/c64-games/laser-chess/
- chess-luv 4y agoSome chess variants are amazing. Here you can promote a pawn on 5th rank: https://youtu.be/LIbMbOjcoxo https://youtu.be/LIbMbOjcoxo
- nathan_f77 4y agoI just received my copy of Iro today [1], which I backed on Kickstarter. It's similar to checkers and I'm enjoying it so far. I think I might need to try it with a little rubber duck. [1] https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/khanat/iro https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/khanat/iro
- drewm1980 4y agoInteresting! Not sure I would describe it as a draughts variant, given that the pieces all move differently. It seems like it would be very hard to evaluate a board position but maybe you get used to all the colors.
- nomilk 4y agoHere's what Duck Chess is: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UCXw-RAmcpA&t=133s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UCXw-RAmcpA&t=133s
- Simon_O_Rourke 4y agoThat's a brilliant idea - must try it out with the 10-year old here (and get beaten as per usual) :) Duck to Queen's Bishop 3!
- stevage 4y agoIs there anywhere you can play it online?
- exdsq 4y agoI did not expect to see my old chess clubs president from a small town in England pop up on the front page of HN!
- dmurray 4y agoYou could reduce the first-player advantage a tiny bit by allowing Black to place the duck at the start of the game, instead of starting it off the board. Presumably Black would place it on d3 or e3. (Some people think reducing the first-player advantage would be valuable. I'd rather increase it, like in tennis).
- genard 4y agoYou can always play Nf3 :)
- cool_dude85 4y agoCurious to think about the endgame implications of this. I am wondering if queen and king is even enough to win against a king only. I guess the winning pattern is to force the opposing king to move into your king at the edge of the board but not clear how to march the king into a corner if he has an untakeable blocker to move every turn. Any ideas?
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- cortesoft 4y agoYou can utilize the fact that the other player HAS to move the duck each turn.... put it in the place you want to go, then they have to move it somewhere else on their turn.
- mfbx9da4 4y agoAnyone going to build an online version?
- ja3k 4y agoReminds me of a chess mod a friend taught me: acid chess. Pieces capture like normal but move however you want. So on your turn you can pick up any one of your pieces and put it on any empty square. Or make a normal capture. It turns out to be a surprisingly interesting game.
- vikingerik 4y agoDoes that include the king? Seems it would be pretty impossible to checkmate a king that can jump anywhere. Maybe only if it's not in check? Or is there some other win condition than checkmate?
- ja3k 4y agoOh sorry, I did forget two important caveats: the king moves normally and you can only move normally onto the back rank.
- js2 4y agoThis isn't clear from the directions: there is no fixed starting position for the duck. Rather, white places the duck on any empty square after their opening move.
- tpoacher 4y agoAs a Greek I find the "@" notation very serendipitous, since for some obscure reason, the name used for this symbol in Greek is "παπάκι" (papaki), which means "duckling".