This post originated from an RSS feed registered with Agile Buzz by Keith Ray. Original Post: Blinker Chess Feed Title: MemoRanda Feed URL: http://homepage.mac.com/1/homepage404ErrorPage.html Feed Description: Keith Ray's notes to be remembered on agile software development, project management, oo programming, and other topics. Latest Agile Buzz Posts Latest Agile Buzz Posts by Keith Ray Latest Posts From MemoRanda

I've had an idea of a computer-mediated chess game with a twist: some of the pieces, some of the time, are invisible to one's opponent. I call the idea "Blinker Chess". Each player starts the game with approximately one-third of your chess pieces (randomly selected) invisible to his opponent. Each turn, one of that player's pieces (again randomly selected) changes state: either becomes invisible or visible. You know which of your pieces are not visible to your opponent (they show on your screen differently).

If you attempt to move your piece to some square, but an invisible piece would get in the way, that other piece becomes visible, but you forfeit that move. If you move a piece onto a square that is already occupied by your opponent, whether by a visible or invisible piece, you capture it (and you see it, briefly, if it had been invisible.) Pawns, of course, capture on the diagonal as per chess rules, but if their forward movement is blocked, the blocking piece becomes visible.

Your King is never invisible. You may not know when your King is in check, because the threatening pieces may be invisible to you. The game ends in capture of the King more often than by checkmate. The "tournament chess" rule about not castling when under threat doesn't apply to Blinker Chess.

If you move an invisible piece, your opponent doesn't see it. You can also "pass" -- not move a piece -- to give your opponent the illusion that you moved an invisible piece; your opponent will not know that you passed instead of moving.

If you've played a chess variation like this, send me an email. If you know of an open-source chess game viewer, for peer-to-peer chess playing, please let me know. My email address is keithray@mac.com.