Extinction Chess

 Lemme Howdt  12/13/2005  2 comments 

A game of Extinction Chess, with analysis.


Chess is very popular on the internet. SchemingMind has a website where people from all over the world play challenges, with a 160 player chess dropout tournament having recently started. As technology has advanced, chess variants have become popular at the Scheming Mind Website. Your pieces can jump to another board in Alice chess, make attacks in the dark in Sun Tzu chess or switch colors in Benedict’s chess.

This story details a game of Extinction chess. The rules are very much like regular chess, but with one major distinction – if you lose all of any type of piece, you lose the game. That means that you cannot have both bishops taken, or all eight pawns, or the king or queen. So checkmates must be delivered from afar, and some odd combinations of play result.

In this game – white is able to queen a pawn while leaving his initial queen open to attack. Thus the loss of a queen is not an extinction of white queens

White: lemme howdt
Black: Altair
Itsyourturn Extinction Chess Ladder Game Sept 2005

1.

')"> d4
')"> d5 2.
')"> c4
')"> dxc4
3.
')"> e4
')"> e5
4.
')"> Qa4
')"> Nc6
5.
')"> d5
')"> Bb4
6.
')"> Nd2
')"> c3
7.
')"> bxc3
')"> Bxc3
8.
')"> dxc6
')"> Bxa1
9.
')"> cxb7
')"> Bd7
10.
')"> bxa8=Q
')"> Qxa8
11.
')"> Qc4
')"> Qb7
12.
')"> Nb3
')"> Bd4
13.
')"> Nxd4
')"> exd4
14.
')"> Qxd4
')"> Qxe4
15.
')"> Qxe4

White responded to the queen pawn opening response 1.

')"> d4
')"> d5
with the very questionable 2.
')"> c4
, offering a temporary pawn for superior development, but opening the king side to attack. After 2...
')"> dxc4
, the response of 3.
')"> e4
')"> e5
is to be expected from both players – Rather than taking the pawn back with the bishop, 4.
')"> Qa4
makes for an aggressive assault.

The knight block 4...

')"> Nc6 may have been better placed at
')"> d7
, but then the game wouldn’t have been quite so wild. 5.
')"> d5
takes advantage of the pinned piece, but the response of 5...
')"> Bb4
directly attacks the king position via the open bishop file. The knight block at 6.
')"> Nd2
is followed by a counter-attack 6...
')"> c3
. This is the key position for the game – all the mayhem is set-up by the aggressive posture of both players, with no defence in either game-plan.

The first pawn exchange 7.

')"> bxc3
')"> Bxc3
leaves the bishop attacking the white rook. While most folks might protect the rook, white found the winning line with 8.
')"> dxc6
. The knight was pinned, but removing it before protecting the rook puts on the squeeze after black gobbles the bait. 8...
')"> Bxa1
9.
')"> cxb7
gives a discovered attack on the black king, so the block is virtually forced and the question is with which piece. With 9...
')"> Bd7
, the white queen should be forced to retreat.

10.

')"> bxa8=Q places black in a true dilemma – the second queen threatens to take queen, so the bishop on the first queen really cannot take – 10...
')"> Qxa8
is forced and 11.
')"> Qc4
allows white to scamper away up a knight for a pawn. 11...
')"> Qb7
takes up floor space while 12.
')"> Nb3
')"> Bd4
sets up for an exchange of pieces on the only terms that keeps black from losing the bishop outright.

After 13.

')"> Nxd4
')"> exd4
14.
')"> Qxd4
, the rook in the corner is trapped once the remaining bishop moves away from the extinction attack. 14...
')"> Qxe4
15.
')"> Qxe4
.

If you would like to try your hand at extinction chess – try http://www.schemingmind.com.


Comments

 Ashmaster 12/14/2005 

good article,
i have always liked extinction chess but i havenever thought of playing in such an agressive manner,
well done.

 nasmichael 12/15/2005 

Thanks for adding this to the journal roster of interests here, Howdt. It adds to our chess culture.

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