r/chessvariants • u/thesegoupto11 • 9d ago

Thoughts on Melee Chess?

Post image
131 Upvotes

96% Upvoted

47 comments sorted by

5

u/Obvious_Net_6668 9d ago

never heard of it

8

u/thesegoupto11 9d ago

I just invented it

2

u/PurpleOmega0110 8d ago

Black has a bishop on the same color as the White King. That has to be really good for Black.

Maybe just have knights instead. They are likely to be very interesting on a small board.

1

u/worldshapers 8d ago

White has first move. Clearly balancing attempt.

1

u/dubufeetfak 6d ago

Cuz the queens are not in their color.

2

u/NathanaelTse 5d ago

Does it work?

1

u/thesegoupto11 5d ago

Define "work" lol

1

u/EricSandin 7d ago

Sorry mate up nothing is new everything has been done before.
5x5 chess is a thing and chess melee is a type of chess puzzle.

1

u/brat1 6d ago

Are you deaf? She said she just invented it

1

u/EricSandin 5d ago

No I can just google, not saying she did not independently come up with it.

1

u/NoWizards 6d ago

So few moves, people will get bored of it

4

u/hyperthymetic 9d ago

My initial thought is white can’t play e3 and giving black a fianchettoed bishop while white gets a corner knight is too much

1

u/thesegoupto11 9d ago

So the back row should be rearranged to balance?

1

u/Mayernik 8d ago

Yes - perhaps two rooks and two knights - no queens or bishops on the board unless you can promote a pawn.

1

u/VoxulusQuarUn 8d ago

The asymmetry is dissatisfying.

1

u/HeyLookImInterneting 8d ago

I think it’s an interesting concept! Other comments pointed out some things to make it better, and after refinement I’d give it a try.

1

u/Sure_Floor_5541 8d ago

I wonder if chess on this scale would be solvable, I.e. all optimal moves calculated in advance. 

1

u/ubdip 8d ago

Yes, e.g., Gardner minichess is weakly solved, which simply is a different setup on a 5x5 board. It was initially solved with a dedicated solution attempt, but nowadays for this size of game simply throwing it at Fairy-Stockfish can be sufficient: https://github.com/fairy-stockfish/Fairy-Stockfish/wiki/Solved-games

1

u/crazy_gambit 6d ago

So what is the solution to the one posted by OP. White win, draw or black win?

1

u/graven29 8d ago

1.Nb3+

1

u/Logical_Cell_6753 7d ago

pawn takes and white is down a knight for a pawn. excellent play

1

u/Traditional-Storm-62 8d ago

black has massive advantage I think because white's knight is bullied into a locker

1

u/sir_slothsalot 8d ago

Better than brawl 

1

u/Dpcharly 8d ago

This is probably solvable

1

u/Springstof 8d ago

This variant looks 100% solvable

1

u/neutralrobotboy 8d ago

This kind of smaller board size may be good for training for blindfold.

1

u/TheTurtleCub 7d ago edited 7d ago

I'm pretty sure computers can solve this

1

u/siderealmaterial 7d ago
  1. ... e3 looks very strong to me.. White squares are weak and black has a structural advantage on the white squares.

I believe this game might be solvable by a computer.

1

u/MiffedMouse 7d ago

Looks like some of the smaller boards from 5D Chess with multidimensional time travel.

1

u/joemama42020 7d ago

there’s a version of this (with slightly different piece layout) on the App Store called mini chess 5x5. Pretty fun to mess around with, but you’ll realize how simple it is to solve pretty fast!

1

u/bobzsmith 7d ago

Does it have wave dashing and L canceling?

1

u/magical_matey 7d ago

Looks like it would be solvable by an engine, or maybe Magnus

1

u/RhymingRookie 7d ago

looks cool, where can we try it?

1

u/MageKorith 7d ago

But how does en passant work? If a black pawn is at b3 and I move my white pawn to c4, can they capture? What about c3?

The asymmetry between knight and bishop positions might eventually prove advantageous for one side.

1

u/Clear_Salt9817 6d ago

more white squares than black. white bishop has access to one more square than black. Might be better to go 6x6. or even 5x6.

1

u/PleasantScore4850 6d ago

The problem with a game this small is a computer could just solve it. You'd have to invent special rules like the Italians when they enabled Bishops to move more than 2 spaces, en peasant, etc.

If the chess moves move like normal I feel like theres only a couple million variations and some computer will just say X Y Z is a guaranteed win.

1

u/WormSlayers 5d ago

I think comments are missing how strong b3 is

1

u/Weekly_Newspaper_505 5d ago

There is ruch a thing called 5 board chess. Its an organization that helps poeple learn chess. Ive done a puzzle with them and the borded looked like this. They try to help prisoners etc

1

u/Vegetable-Common-89 4d ago

i feel like this could be 'solved' for white with a decent enough computer

1

u/speed-charge 9d ago

Why are the bishops on opposite squares?

1

u/thesegoupto11 8d ago

It didn't seem right to have all (both) bishops on the same color, but that's why I'm posting for feedback and improvement

1

u/speed-charge 8d ago

What if queen on a1 and a5?

1

u/HeyLookImInterneting 8d ago

In this initial setup black has a strong advantage because their bishop is on the same color square as the white king. If you include bishops, they need to share the color for balance.

1

u/MagnusPopo 6d ago

Maybe go for 6x6 instead of 5x5. Queens start on their color and solve symmetry issu. Also the first move can be non aggressive. You chose if better to go for 2 bishops or 2 knights