Atomic chess
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Atomic chess is identical to standard chess with one exception. The exception regards what happens when one piece captures another piece. In standard chess, the captured piece is removed from the board and the capturing piece takes its place. In atomic chess, both pieces are "killed" (i.e. removed from the board) because every capture releases an atomic explosion. Furthermore, this atomic explosion extends to all 8 surrounding squares. Any pieces caught in the surrounding squares are also killed with the sole exception of pawns. Pawns are killed only when they are involved in the actual capture event in the central square. Otherwise, they are unharmed and remain on the board.
The game frequently ends with one king being caught in the explosion of a surrounding piece. However, checkmate still occurs frequently.
Because White has the initiative, Black is often preoccupied initially to fending off attempts to kill its king via atomic explosions directed at his pawn starting at f7. If Black survives, however, the tables can turn very quickly in this game of unabashed destruction. Notwithstanding, the first-move-of-the-game advantage enjoyed by White is much greater in this game than in standard chess (which is at the borderline of being too large). Hence, this game is imbalanced against Black – If White plays an incisive opening game, White will surely gain an advantage leading to victory regardless of how well Black plays. For this reason, this game is not taken seriously by experts.
External links
- Vlasov's Atomic Chess Page (http://www.unix-ag.uni-kl.de/~chess/atomic/) - rules and opening theory.
- Siggemannen's Atomic Page (http://a.domaindlx.com/sigge/atomic) - rules and strategy
- Tipau's Atomic Page (http://a.domaindlx.com/sigge/atomic/tipau) - tactical ideas
- Chronatog's Atomic Page (http://www.xare.net/chess/atomic) - atomic history, openings, and endgames
- MoltenThinker's Atomic Page (http://www.moltenstudios.com/atomic) - tactics and endgames
- Atomic Chess Wiki (http://www28.s-ar1.arweb.at/phpwiki-1.3.10/index.php/AtomicChess) - opening and endgame theory.
- Atomic Chess | Play at SchemingMind.com (http://www.schemingmind.com)
- Atomic Chess | Chess Variant Pages (http://www.chessvariants.org/difftaking.dir/atomic.html)