Fairy chess explained

Fairy chess is the area of chess composition in which there are some changes to the rules of chess. The term was introduced by Henry Tate in 1914. Thomas R. Dawson (1889–1951), the "father of fairy chess",^[1] invented many fairy pieces and new conditions. He was also problem editor of Fairy Chess Review (1930–1951).

Although the term "fairy chess" is sometimes used for games, it is more usually applied to problems where the board, pieces, or rules are changed to express an idea or theme impossible in orthodox chess. Variations on chess intended to create complete, playable games are more typically referred to as chess variants.

Types of fairy chess problems

Types of changed rules in fairy chess problems include:

• New stipulations: The alterations most used by fairy chess players, like Thomas Dawson, are new stipulations about mate instead of a direct mate stipulation. Many of them were invented and some became established. Selfmates and helpmates are, in the 21st century, often considered to be orthodox (not fairy) stipulations. Among others are reflexmates and various types of seriesmovers.
• New conditions: Encompassing all changes of rules including rules for captures, checks, checkmates, and general movement abilities. Many were invented; some became established, including Circe chess, Madrasi chess, Andernach chess, monochromatic chess, patrol chess, Einstein chess, and Descartes chess.
• New chess pieces: Conventional chess pieces are generalized in many ways into fairy chess pieces, such as grasshopper, nightrider, and cannon.
• Different boards: One can vary board size from 8×8 to other sizes (10×10, 8×10, or 8x8 unusual board shapes, etc.) or use different geometries: cylinder (vertical and horizontal), anchor ring or torus and others.

There are fairy chess problems that combine some of these changed rules.

All entries in the world championships and in the FIDE Albums are divided into eight sections: (and), endgame studies, helpmates, selfmates, fairy chess, retros, and mathematical problems.

Fairy chess literature

Books and pamphlets devoted to fairy chess:

Periodicals devoted to fairy chess:

• The Problemist Fairy Supplement (August 1930 – June 1936)
• Fairy Chess Review (August 1936 – April 1958)
• Feenschach, edited by W. Karsch

See also

• Fairy chess piece

References

Bibliography

• Book: Dickins , Anthony . A Guide to Fairy Chess . Dover Publications Inc . New York . 1971 . Corrected repub. of 1969 2nd ed., The Q Press, Richmond, Surrey, England . 0-486-22687-5.

External links

• Fairy chess by Michael McDowell
• Fairy chess glossary by Otto Janko
• MetaChess, an open source fairy chess engine

Notes and References

1. Book: Pritchard, D. B. . David Pritchard (chess player) . The Classified Encyclopedia of Chess Variants . John Beasley . 2007 . 361 . 978-0-9555168-0-1.