Chess game

Abstract

A chess game variant includes a wildcard piece that starts play off the playing area and that may be introduced on to the playing area in a space adjacent the king upon occurrence of a pre-defined condition, for example after an officer other than the king is captured for a first time. The movement ability of the wildcard piece may be randomly determined from the movement abilities of other officers, including any non-standard pieces used in the game. A non-standard piece may also be included in the chess game, for example a hybrid piece having a movement ability that is a hybrid of a queen and a knight where the hybrid piece can move in any direction and jump over other pieces but whose movement is restricted to no more than three spaces.

1 . A chess game comprising an apparatus, the apparatus comprising:
 a playing area for displaying only two sets of chess pieces, the playing area consisting essentially of a 10×10 array of 100 spaces which the pieces occupy or move through;   only two sets of chess pieces, the pieces of one set distinguishable from the pieces of the other set, each set of pieces consisting of 21 pieces, the 21 pieces consisting of ten pawns and eleven officers, the eleven officers consisting of a king, a queen, two rooks, two bishops, two knights, two non-standard pieces that start play on the playing area and have a movement ability permitting movement of three spaces along a rank or file or two spaces along a diagonal in any one move and permitting jumping over intervening pieces, and a wildcard piece that starts play off the playing area and may be introduced on to the playing area in a space adjacent the king by a player upon occurrence of a pre-defined condition, the wildcard piece having a randomly determined movement ability; and, a random selection device configured to randomly determine the movement ability of the wildcard piece, the random selection device comprising a plurality of selectable tokens, each token comprising an indication of the movement ability of the wildcard piece.   
     
     
         2 . The game according to  claim 1 , wherein the pre-defined condition occurs when an officer other than the king of the player is captured for a first time. 
     
     
         3 . The game according to  claim 1 , wherein the randomly determined movement ability is chosen randomly from movement abilities of the queen, the rook, the bishop, the knight, the pawn or the non-standard piece. 
     
     
         4 . The game according to  claim 1 , wherein the randomly determined movement ability is chosen randomly from movement abilities of a rook, a bishop, a knight or the non-standard piece. 
     
     
         5 . The game according to  claim 1 , wherein the wildcard piece cannot be introduced on to the playing area when the king is in check. 
     
     
         6 . The game according to  claim 1 , wherein a declaration of check is not required when an opposing player's king is placed in check by the wildcard piece when the wildcard piece's movement ability remains unrevealed to the opposing player. 
     
     
         7 - 19 . (canceled) 
     
     
         20 . The game according to  claim 1 , wherein a declaration of check is not required when an opposing player's king is placed in check by the wildcard piece when the wildcard piece's movement ability remains unrevealed to the opposing player. 
     
     
         21 . The game according to  claim 1 , wherein the playing area is displayed on a came board and the chess pieces are physical pieces supported on a surface of the came board. 
     
     
         22 - 42 . (canceled) 
     
     
         43 . A chess game comprising:
 a playing area for displaying only two sets of chess pieces, the playing area consisting essentially of a 10×10 array of 100 spaces which the pieces occupy or move through;   only two sets of chess pieces, the pieces of one set distinguishable from the pieces of the other set, each set of pieces consisting of 21 pieces, the 21 pieces consisting of ten pawns and eleven officers, the officers including a king, wherein two of the officers are non-standard pieces that start play on the playing area, the two non-standard pieces both having a movement ability permitting movement of three spaces along a rank or file or two spaces along a diagonal in any one move and permitting jumping over intervening pieces, and wherein one of the officers is a wildcard piece that starts play off the playing area and may be introduced on to the playing area in a space adjacent the king by a player upon occurrence of a pre-defined condition, the wildcard piece having a randomly determined movement ability; and,   a computer, an output device for the computer and an input device for the computer, the output device configured to display the playing area and the chess pieces, the computer configured to randomly determine the movement ability of the wildcard piece.