FICS Variants
Part 1
When it comes right down to it, if you are playing anything but 0 0
unrated, you are playing a chess variant. Clocks, to say nothing of
chess clocks, are not as old as this ancient game of ours, and the
concept of a chess rating newer still. For the harder core "purists"
of the game, I will add that the power of the queen, long range
bishops and that quirky pawn double move (and en passant) were
modifications to the game in Isabella's Spain. In fact, not all
countries refer to the Indian "elephant" piece as a bishop! I am sure
a lot of newer users of FICS not used to timed games, will concur that
playing 1 0 (or 0 1) is certainly different from even 5 0 or 10 0. But
after you've played about 1% of your life on line, you just might be
looking for something different, and FICS has plenty of options for
excitement. In most cases you can play these games with either a
match or seek of the form:
MATCH Opponent-name Variant-name time-control rated/unrated
SEEK Variant-name time-control rated/unrated
However as one point, only a few variants online are actually playable
as rated, so for most they will only be unrated, and for some reason
FICS won't let you play them untimed. Also, most do not allow
castling, which is obvious in some cases, I will note these exceptions.
So here's a quick rundown of the currently available variants on
Freechess.org:
Please note: your client program may not support all of them!
(I know mine, Fixation, hangs on one variant, "little-game", which I will, for
obvious reasons, not cover here but you are free to try on your own.)
Many of these games are documented in FICS help "wild" or similarly referred
files, however I will be writing about many that are not (hence my wish to
write this article!)
In the case of Bughouse, there is quite a bit more to know and do (such as
setting your "bugopen" variable and finding a partner for a team) so you
really would benefit from reading FICS documentation for a more complete
understanding of how to even get into a game of that variant.
[Notes: R/U: rated possible/unrated only, C/NC: castling/no castling allowed]
SUICIDE - [Rated, No castling] - Despite its harsh name, it is
actually a fairly friendly game and most often quick as most moves are
forced and the main strategy is to keep the initiative and keep forcing your
opponent's moves. Novices often make the mistake of sacrificing all their
pieces, that is not always advisable. The rules are simple, all moves as in
regular chess (no castling), the goal being to lose all your pieces or
stalemate. Stalemate here referring to having no legal move left, noting
that the King is just another piece and can (must) be sacrificed, as well as
pawns can optionally promote to King, which makes sense once you've played
this a few times.
LOSERS - [Unrated, Castling] - Not trying to start a theme here, but
keeping in line with Suicide, losers is quite simple. The difference to the
above is that the King does matter and checking moves have to be replied
first It should also be noted that you CAN mate; however, the catch is: if
you mate, you lose! ;)
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