This game is being played under Racing Kings rules. Click the 'info' tab for more information.
Clock started on 04/10/2020
1. Nxc2 Rxc2 2. Bd4 Bb2 3. Bxb2 Qxb2 4. Rg3 Nb3 5. Kh3 Ka3 6. Kh4 Kb4 7. Kh5 Kb5 8. Rg6 Rc7 9. Kh6 Rbc1 10. Qe4 Qe5 11. Qg4 R1c6 12. Rxc6 Kxc6 13. Qg8 Kb7 14. Nf4 Qe7 15. Rg7 Rc8 Black win
Racing Kings is a race-style game, where two players try to cross the board with their kings, and other pieces try to stop opponent, while supporting own king. The game was invented by V.R. Patron, also the inventor of Alice Chess. It is available on SchemingMind since November 2006.
Game rules
Here is the game starting position:
As you can see, it is changed in the following ways:
- There are no pawns
- All pieces start on White's first 2 ranks.
- White's King starts on square H2 and Black's King on A2. The Queens are behind the Kings on the first rank.
- Rooks start one in front of the other on the G and B ranks.
- Bishops start one in front of the other on the F and C ranks.
- Knights start one in front of the other on the E and D ranks.
The pieces move and capture as in standard chess. There is no check or mate. You are forbidden from checking your opponent or walking into check yourself.
The first King to make it to the 8th rank, anywhere, wins.
To compensate for White's first move advantage, if the white King gets to the 8th rank, but the black King can go there on the very next move, then the game is a draw.
There were some discussions, whether the Racing Kings draw rule (if black king can reach last rank immediately after white, then the game is drawn) is fair. Initial playing experience seems to confirm this is the case. White is usually able to initiate exchanges and simplify position, up to the level where stopping any of the kings is impossible. In such symmetrical case, draw seems to be fair result. In the absence of this rule, black - who is already handicapped by the fact that white moves first - would be forced to search for complications, not to win, but even to draw the game.
Stalemate also counts as a draw.
Tips and tricks
- Do not forget that you are allowed to take opponent pieces.
- The fact that checking is forbidden creates quite a lot of new unique tactical patterns. In particular, you are forbidden to take (or recapture) opponent piece, if that would mean giving a check. For simple example see this position - not only white couldn't take black queen, but black could take white bishop for free.
- There even exist interesting case of self-pin, for instance here white can not capture the black queen because its knight is pinned by its own bishop.
- Do not fall into the trap of rushing with the king without paying attention to the remaining pieces. If the opponent wipes out your pieces, he would be able to cut your king from the back rank easily. See this game for canonical example.
- The exact piece value is yet to be determined, but the fact that queens and rooks can horizontally cut the king give those pieces significant advantage over bishops and knights. The knights are of any value only if they manage to follow the action. Two rooks are surely better than the queen (see simple example). Sacrificing pieces for tempi is frequent, especially if the king is already advanced.
Example games
Game Page Help
The Action Bar
The Action Bar is the most important part of the game screen, this is where you interact with the game by entering moves, conditional moves, comments, draw offers, resignations, and much more (if you are not viewing one of your own games, the Action Bar is not shown). The Action Bar is in four parts, from left to right:
- The Move Input Box: where your move or conditional move is shown; it is possible to type into this box, but not recommended, you can enter your move by dragging and dropping the pieces on the board.
- The Action Selection Dropdown: this is where you select the action you want to do, for example, move, enter a comment, accept a draw offer, claim a draw, etc. Only the actions which are relevant to the current game are shown.
- The Continue Button: this button sends your action back to our server; sometimes you might see a pop-up text box before the action is sent, this is so that you can write a message to your opponent. You can set your preferences so that this box is always shown to confirm you move (under the "Chess Board" tab "Confirm moves before committing), some people find this helpful as a "blunder check".
- The Next Game button: clicking the button will take you to the next game for which it is your move.
The Game Information Panel
Under the Action Bar, you should find the Game Information Panel. This gives you more information about the game; because there is too much information to see on one screen here, it is arranged into "tab"; you can move between the various screens by clicking the buttons, from left to right:
- Game Overview: this tab shows the full history of the game, including comments (you cannot read the comments from another player's game, unless the game is marked as "public"), leave taken, etc. You can click the moves to see the position on the chess board.
- Hide Comments: this tab shows the moves of the game only, without the distraction of the comments shown on the game overview tab.
- Material Balance: this tab shows the captured pieces in the game. If you are playing CrazyHouse chess, or a similar game, you can drag pieces from here to the board to make a "drop".
- Tags: You can "tag" games, this makes it easier to come back to games, you can find the games you have tagged from the game database screen.
- Variant Information: this tab is available for some chess variants, it will show you a description of the variant.
- Opening Book: In standard chess games, this tab will show you information about the chess opening you have been playing, taken from the Game Explorer.
- Analysis Board: Opening this tab will overlay an "analysis board" on the main chess board; you can move the pieces around freely on this board to try out various ideas in the game.
- Engine Analysis: This tab allows you to analyse the game using a chess engine; because the use of engines is not allowed on SchemingMind, this tab is not available for ongoing games.
- Share: The share tab will allow you to share your game on social media (if someone becomes a member by following one of your links, you will be rewarded with a complimentary extension to your full membership); you can also download the game as either an animated GIF or in PGN format, and you can copy the current position to your clipboard in FEN format.
- Help: If you are reading this, you have already figured out what the help button does!
The Chess Board
The chess board shows the current position in your game; if it is your move, or if you can enter a conditional move, you can drag and drop the pieces on the chess board.
If you wish to castle, simply drag your king over the rook on the side you wish to castle on. When you promote a pawn, you will see a pop-up prompting you to select the promoted piece.
We have a number of different designs for chess boards and pieces, you can select the one you prefer from your personal preferences.
Under the chess board is a navigation toolbar (this toolbar looks slightly different if you are looking at the analysis board).
From left to right:
- Settings: This button will bring up your chess board and pieces display settings.
- Move to Start: This button will show the start position of the game.
- Previous Move: This button will move position shown on the board back one move.
- Next Move: This button will show the next position on the board.
- Last Move: This button will show the current position on the board.
- Flip: This button will show the board from the other player's perspective (by default you see games from White's perspective unless you are Black; you can select an option to always show the board from White's perspective in your personal preferences).
- Animate: If you are not looking at the last move in the game, this button will animate the game from the shown position to the last move.
- Stop Animation: This button will stop the animation.
View this article in the Knowledge Base.