Update

chess.md

@@ -400,7 +400,7 @@ Anyway, you can try to derive your own stats, there are huge free game databases
 
 { TODO: Derive stats about the best move, i.e. for example "best move is usually by queen by three squares" or something like that. Could this actually help the play somehow? Maybe could be used for move ordering in alpha-beta. ~drummyfish }
 
-### Variants
+## Variants
 
 Besides very similar games such as [shogi](shogi.md) there are many variants of chess with slight modifications of the rules, foremost worth mentioning is for example chess 960. The following is a list of some variants:
 
@@ -432,32 +432,51 @@ Besides very similar games such as [shogi](shogi.md) there are many variants of
 - **sovereign chess**: A bigger variant of chess with different rules.
 - ...
 
+### Variant Ideas
+
+This subsection will be dedicated to various not well tested ideas.
+
+{ I'll be pasting my ideas here. It's possible that these variants already exist and I just haven't found them. If you recognize something in this section as an existing variant, please let me know <3 ~drummyfish }
+
+**LRS chess**: { This one seems quite obvious, it probably already exists? ~drummyfish } chess is only mildly [bloated](bloat.md) but what if we try to unbloat it completely? Here we propose the LRS version of chess. The rule changes against normal chess are:
+
+- No castling.
+- No en passant.
+- Promotion is always to queen.
+- No checks or checkmates, king is just another man.
+- Whoever takes the opponent's king first wins.
+- If a player has no available moves, he loses.
+- Only a single draw rule: if game doesn't end in 1024 half moves or fewer, it is a draw. I.e. there are no weird draw rules (50 move, repetition, ...). Of course players may still agree on draw anytime.
+- Random: optionally random variant of LRS chess can be played. Here we randomly shuffle the white player's back row men in the starting position and mirror it for black (no weird conditions on men positions like in chess 960).
+
 { I was thinking about a variant that would completely remove the white's first move advantage and here is my idea: let the players make the moves simultaneously. In real life this can be done for example by players writing the moves on a piece of paper, then revealing them. Of course we'd have to address conflicting situations such as both players moving their kings so that the new position would be illegal. Perhaps the turn would be successful only if the two moves performed in either order would result in the same, legal position. If the turn was unsuccessful, the attempt at a turn would repeat and let's say after 3 unsuccessful attempts the game would be a draw. ~drummyfish }
 
 { I got another idea for a chess variant, inspired by [Warcraft 3](warcraft3.md): chess with [races](race.md). It would be an extension of normal chess, in which each player could choose a "race" to play with. Races would differ by the initial setup on the player's side and the default "human" race would just have the traditional chess setup. Other races could be created by giving some kind of advantage for a disadvantage, e.g. having some men already developed for the price of one pawn -- this would probably have to be tuned with help of an engine so that all matchups would be balanced. It would also be possible to add new types of men or special abilities for the new races, but then we'd lose the ability to play this variant with traditional chess engines. ~drummyfish }
 
+{ Another quick idea: lose against random moves (draw or victory equates loss). I literally haven't tried it, maybe it's going to be too boring or too easy, but I thought it might be good for beginners (and advanced players could potentially make it harder by imposing further restrictions, like lose in N moves or fewer, lose N games in a row, give the opponent material disadvantage etc.). The point was that this is a single player variant that's very easy to program, can even be played without a computer (dice) and it could be educational in some ways, mainly by making you think from the opponent's point of view. ~drummyfish }
+
 ## Playing Tips
 
 Some general tips and rules of thumb, mostly for beginners:
 
 - Try to control the center of the board (D4, D5, E4, E5).
 - Don't bring the queen out too early, the opponent can harass it and get ahead in development.
-- Learn some universal setup openings or "systems" to play, e.g. London, King's Indian, the hippo etc.
+- Learn some universal setup openings or "systems" to play, e.g. London, King's Indian, the hippo etc. If you don't want to bother with openings, play chess 960.
 - Develop your men before attacking, usually knights go out before bishops, bishops are well placed on the longest diagonals as "snipers".
 - Learn basic tactics, especially **forks** (attacking two or more men at once so that one of them cannot escape capture) and **pins** (attack one man so that if he moves out of the way he will expose another one to be captured), but also other things like double checks, sacrifices, deflections etc.
-- Learn basic types of checkmates and mating patterns, for example mating with two rooks, with king and queen, back rank mates (especially dangerous when starting, always make an escape square), smothered mates, how not to stalemate etc.
+- Learn basic types of checkmates and mating patterns, for example mating with two rooks, with king and queen, back rank mates (especially dangerous when starting, always make an escape square), smothered mates, how not to stalemate (giving check can't ever result in stalemate, leaving the opponent one pawn with a legal move also guarantees no stalemate, ...) etc.
 - Watch out for hanging pieces! You usually want to have everything guarded.
 - King safety is extremely important until endgame, castle very early but not extremely early. In the endgame (with queens out) king joins the battle as another active man.
-- Learn when to exchange and when not -- usually when you're up material, trades are good for you because trading same value men increases the ratio of your material advantage. When attacking you probably don't want to trade because you need SOMETHING to attack with -- so when your opponent is attacking you and you're defending, you WANT to trade because he probably doesn't want that. Also when you have little space and are squeezed in your base, you probably want to trade and create more space. Etc.
+- Learn when to exchange and when not -- usually when you're up material, trades are good for you because trading same value men increases the ratio of your material advantage. When attacking you probably don't want to trade because you need SOMETHING to attack with -- so when your opponent is attacking you and you're defending, you WANT to trade because he probably doesn't want that. Also when you have little space and are squeezed in your base, you probably want to trade and create more space. Trading your only bishop for opponent's bishop when he has both is probably good as a bishop pair is very valuable. Etc.
 - Pawn structure is very important (avoid doubled and isolated pawn, watch out for the weak back pawns etc.).
 - Rooks want to be on open files, you also want to CONNECT them (have both guard each other). Also a rook in the opponents second row (2nd/7th rank) is pretty good.
 - Stack rooks, i.e. place them on the same open file -- this is very powerful. You can also stack two rooks and a queen and create a so called legendary triple stack which is extremely powerful.
 - If you find a good move, look for a better one. There seems to be this pattern in which if you spot a good move, it indicates that opponent's position is falling apart and usually there is a much more powerful, crashing move to play.
 - Bishops are generally seen a bit more valuable than knights, especially in pairs -- if you can trade your knight for opponent's bishop, it's often good. If your opponent has two bishops and you only have one, you want to trade yours for his so he doesn't have the pair. A knight pair is also pretty powerful though, especially when the knights are guarding each other.
 - Consider the bishop difference: one only covers white squares, the other only black ones. Take this into account when exchanging bishops, sacrificing them, placing your pieces on white vs dark squares etc.
-- "Knight on a rim is dim" (knights are best placed near the center).
+- "Knight on a rim is dim" (knights are best placed near the center). Also mobility in general is good (having more possible moves is generally better).
 - Blocking the opponent's man so that he can't move (i.e. making it inactive) is almost as good as taking it. And vice versa: you want to activate all your men if possible, put them on good squares and make them do something. Take space from opponent and "squeeze" him, having little space and few moves is generally bad.
-- Memorize the square names. Not only is this important for reading recorded games and discussing them, it also somewhat helps visualizing the board in your head as each square now has its own label, a word that helps the brain distinguish and remember squares. You must learn the names so that you instantly know any square name when pointed at, counting them isn't enough. It's similar to remembering names of [numbers](number.md) -- this probably what allows us to add big numbers in our head.
+- Memorize and internalize the square names (A1, B2, ...). Not only is this crucial for reading recorded games and discussing them, it also somewhat helps visualizing the board in your head as each square now has its own label, a word that helps the brain distinguish and remember squares. You must learn the names so that you instantly know any square name when pointed at, counting them isn't enough. It's similar to remembering names of [numbers](number.md) -- this probably what allows us to add big numbers in our head.
 - Nubs are weak against long range bishops, they can't see them. Place a bishop to corner on the long diagonal and just snipe the opponent's material. See also fianchetto.
 - Don't play "hope chess", always suppose your opponent will play the best move he can. Don't give a check just because you can, always try to invalidate the move you want to play and only play it if you can't find an easy counter to it.
 - If you can achieve something with multiple men, usually it's best to do it with the weakest one.
@@ -503,21 +522,6 @@ WORK IN PROGRESS, pls send me more tips :)
 - Look up chess etiquette and do the exact opposite of what it says.
 - ...
 
-## LRS Chess
-
-{ Has someone already made this tho? Seems like a pretty obvious simplification to make. ~drummyfish }
-
-Chess is only mildly [bloated](bloat.md) but what if we try to unbloat it completely? Here we propose the LRS version of chess. The rule changes against normal chess are:
-
-- No castling.
-- No en passant.
-- Promotion is always to queen.
-- No checks or checkmates, king is just another man.
-- Whoever takes the opponent's king first wins.
-- If a player has no available moves, he loses.
-- Only a single draw rule: if game doesn't end in 1024 half moves or fewer, it is a draw. I.e. there are no weird draw rules (50 move, repetition, ...). Of course players may still agree on draw anytime.
-- Random: optionally random variant of LRS chess can be played. Here we randomly shuffle the white player's back row men in the starting position and mirror it for black (no weird conditions on men positions like in chess 960).
-
 ## See Also
 
 - [shogi](shogi.md)