Insurance Chess Club
http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/ins.chess
Kriegspiel
PATH FROM HOME
Have you ever felt, while playing a game of chess, that you haven't a clue what your opponent is up to? In Kriegspiel, this feeling is inescapable because your are not allowed to see or be informed what your opponents moves are, nor he yours. In fact, you do not even play on the same board! The game can only be played with the assistance of a third party, the umpire, who imparts scraps of information from which the players have to deduce the opponent's moves. The rules, given below, offer a sufficient description of how the game is played.
The game offers many intrigues to those with a penchant for solving mysteries. What is one to make of the following: your opponent ask if there are any pawn captures. The Umpire says "try". You hear the first try refused. You then receive the information that "Black has captured on e4". Was this a pawn capture? Or did he make a capture with some other piece, having failed with his obligatory try?
Kriegspiel was once quite popular within the Club, but requires a bit of organisation to bring it off and also cannot be combined with any serious play at normal chess due to the need for constant verbal communication between the players and the umpire. Nowadays, with everyone seemingly having less time to devote to frivolous pastimes, the opportunities simply do not occur.
In view of the historical connection within the Club, we held a kriegspiel evening as part of our Centenary year celebrations in 1993; however, the occasion was not one of our more conspicuous successes! Part of the reason was probably inadequate preparation and awareness-raising publicity internally, but it may be that kriegspiel no longer generates the interest it once did, which is sad because it's great fun (the Webmaster prefers to be umpire!). Even so, several games were played that evening and one of them is given below.
In planning the kriegspiel evening, the Centenary Sub-Committee had to set the rules down on paper. This is not quite so simple as it seems. It is one of those games where the rules have been passed on by word of mouth and, though we investigated various sources, no written rules could be found. Those on the sub-committee who had played the game before, therefore set down their understanding of the rules and eventually and agreed wording was reached. These rules are set out below.
PAGES AT THIS LEVEL
1 The game is played between two players with the assistance of an Umpire. One player has the white pieces and one player the black pieces and except as indicated below the usual laws of chess apply. The object of the games is to checkmate one's opponent.
2 The game requires three chess boards and three sets of chess men. The umpire has a board and set (the game board) which is not visible to either player and he makes all the moves of the game on this board. Each player has a board and set which is not visible to the other player but is visible to the umpire. A player makes his moves on this board. He may only move his own pieces when it is his turn to move but he can move his opponent's pieces at will.
3 The Umpire is responsible for ensuring that the moves of each of the players are legal moves in the position and for giving information in accordance with the following rules.
4 After the first move by each player, when it is a player's turn to move he may ask the Umpire if there are any pawn captures. If the reply is in the affirmative then the player must try at least one such capture.
5 When a player has made a move on his own board, the Umpire will then say, as appropriate, either:—
a) You cannot do that — in which case the player must retract that move and make another,
or, if the move is legal,
b) the Umpire makes the move on the game board and says:—
White/Black has moved, or
White/Black has captured on [square], or
White/Black has moved giving check on the rank/file/short diagonal/long diagonal/with a knight, or
White/Black has captured on [square] giving check on the rank/file/short diagonal/long diagonal/with a knight
White/Black has given checkmate
the game is drawn.
Playing through the score of a game of kriegspiel puts you in the Umpire's position. It requires you to exercise your imagination to put yourself in the players' place and remember, at each move, neither player knows his opponent's moves.
The game given here, which was played on the Kriegspiel evening in Centenary Year, has been fully annotated with the enquiries made by each player at each turn and the moves they tried to make, in addition to the legal ones actually made. It is these failed attempts to find a legal move that are the kriegspiel player's lifeblood; from the simple information that such and such a move is not possible he can deduce something about the position - a bit like blind man's buff.
Game moves in bold print. Annotations (in brackets, always before the move): "a?" = "Any pawn captures?" followed by the Umpire's reply. Successful move tries appear as the game moves without the redundant appearance first as a query. (The exception to this is pawn capture tries as the result of an "a?" enquiry.)
White: David Malcolm Black: Derek Harris
1 e4 c6 2 (a? N) Nf3 (a? N) a5 3 (a? N) Be2 (a? N) f6 4 (a? N) O-O (a? N) h5 5 (a? N) d4 (a? N) g5 6 (a? N) c4 Kf7 7 e5 (a? Y ab4?) h4 8 (a? N) exf6 (a? Y ab4?) Nxf6 9 Nc3 (a? N) Bg7 10 (a? N) d5 (a? Y hg3?) e6 11 (a? Y ba3?) dxe6+ (a? Y de6?) dxe6 12 (a? N) Nd4 (a? N) Qe7 13 (a? N h4?) h3 (a? N) Rd8 14 Bh5+ (a? N Kg6? Ke8?) Nxh5 15 Qxh5+ Kf8 16 Qe2 Kf7 17 Nf3 (Ba1? Bb2?) a4 18 (a? N) Nxh4 gxh4 19 Kh2 (a? N h3?) Bf6 20 (a? N) g3 (a? Y ab3? h3?) a3 21 (a? Y gh4?) gxh4 (a? Y ba6) Bxh4 22 (a? Y fg3? fe3? cd5? cb5? ab3) b3 (a? N a2?) Bf6 23 (a? N) f4 (a? N a2?) Rh8 24 (a? N) Bd2 (a? N) e5 25 (a? Y fg5?) fxe5 (a? N) Bxh3 26 (a? Y ef6?) exf6 (a? N) Qe6 27 (a? N Kh3?) Rf4 (a? N) Nd7 28 (a? N f7?) Rh4 (a? N a2?) Rh5 29 (a? N) Rxh3 Rxh3+ 30 (Kh3?) Kg2 Rah8 31 (a? N) Re1 (a? N) Rh1 32 (a? N) Ne4 (a? N a2?) R8h2+ 33 (Kh2? Kf2? Kg1?) Kg3 Qh3+ 34 (Kf3? Kh3? Kg2? Kg4?) Kf4 Nxf6 35 Ng5+ (Qh6? Qh8? a? N) Kg6 36 (a? N) Nxh3 Rxh3 37 b4 (a? N a2?) Rb3 38 (a? Y bc5? cd5? cb5? ba5?) c5 (a? N a2?) Rb2 39 (a? N) Bc1 (a? N a2?) Nd5+ 40 Kg4 (a? N a2?) Rh2 41 (a? N Kh3?) Qe6+ (Kh6? Kf6?) Nf6+! (the check is a bonus!) 42 (Kh3? Kh4?) Kg3 (a? N a2?) Rxa2 43 (a? N) Rf1 Rag2+ 44 (Kg2? Kg4? Kh3? Kh4? Kh2?) Kf3 (a? N Nd5?) a2 45 (a? N Kg2?) Bb2 (a? N) a1=Q 46 (a? N) Qxf6+ (Kf6?) Kh7 (At this point, apart from an extra black pawn, White had the black position accurately.) 47 Bxa1 Ra2 48 (a? N) Ke3 (a? N Kg6?) Rxa1 49 Rxa1 Ra2 50 (a? N) Rf1 (a? N Kg6?) Ra6 51 (a? N) Rf5 (a? N Kg6? Kg7? Kh6?) Ra1 52 (a? N) Qe6 (a? N) Rc1 53 (a? N) Rf7+ (Kg7? Kg6?) Kg8 54 Re7+ (Kf7? Rc4? a? N) Kf8 55 Qf6+ (Rf1? Kf7? Ke7? Ke8? Kg7?) Kg8 56 Qf7+ (Kf7? Rc4? Kg7? Kf8? Kh7?) Kh8 57 Re8# 1-0.
