SEIRAWAN CHESS

'Seirawan chess' is a chess variant invented by grandmaster Yasser Seirawan in 2007^[1]. It is played on the standard 8x8 board and uses two new pieces, the ''Hawk'' (which moves like a Knight or a Bishop) and the ''Elephant'' (which moves like a Knight or a Rook). Yasser Seirawan has given simultaneous exhibitions for the game. The first ever event was a 12 board simultaneous exhibition held March 31 in Vancouver, Canada ^[2].

Contents

Rules

Example game

See also

References

External links

Rules

The initial position is that of standard chess. Each side has additionally two pieces in hand (a Hawk and an Elephant):

★ The Elephant, moves as a Rook or a Knight; and

★ The Hawk, moves as a Bishop or a Knight.
The Elephant and the Hawk are introduced to the game in the following way: whenever the player moves a piece from its starting position (granted it hasn't been moved before,) one of the pieces in hand may be placed immediately on the square just vacated. If the player moves all his pieces from the first rank without placing either piece, he forfeits the right to do so. After castling player may put one of the pieces in hand on either the King's or the Rook's square, but he may not place both pieces in hand in the same turn. Pawns may promote to a Hawk or an Elephant in this game (in addition to the normal Chess pieces).
When notating games in algebraic notation, the letter 'E' is used for the Elephant and 'H' for the Hawk. If the player places one of the two pieces on the board, it's written after a slash. For example, '1. Nc3/Eb1' means that the player moved his Knight from 'b1' to 'c3' and placed the Elephant on 'b1' (see diagram).

Example game

Yasser Seirawan – Tiffany Tang/Laura Harper
Vancouver, March 31, 2007 ^[3]
This game was played in the first ever Seirawan Chess simultaneous exhibition.
'1.d4 d5 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3/Hb1 Nf6 4.Bf4 Be7 5.e3 b6 6.Nf3 Bb7/Ec8 7.cxd5 Nxd5 8.Nxd5 Qxd5/Hd8 9.Hc3 Qh5?!'
Black’s queen soon gets into trouble.
'10.Be2 Qg6 11.0-0/Eh1 0-0 12.Eg3'
Not so much because White is convinced that a queen is more valuable than an elephant, but to protect White’s king.
'12...Qxg3 13.Bxg3 c5 14.Rc1 Bf6 15.Be5!'
White now begins a series of fine moves that lead to a winning position.
'15...Bxe5 16.dxe5 a6?!'
Logical, but Black doesn’t really have time for this.
'17.Nd2! b5 18.Ne4 Hc6 19.Bf3 b4 20.Nf6+! gxf6 21.Bxc6 Bxc3 22.exf6!'
Threatening 23.Qg4+ and 24.Qg7 mate.
'22...Kh8 23.Bxb7'
The point of White’s combination. Everything hangs.
'23...cxb2 24.Rb1 Eb6 25.Bxa8 Exa8 26.Rxb2 Ec7 27.Qd6! Ed7 28.Qg3 Rg8 29.Rxb8! Exb8 30.Qxb8 Rxb8 31.Rc4'
White is a pawn ahead in a winning rook ending. Even so, the rest of the game is worth playing out. Somehow the “chess” positions which arise out of s-chess games often seem to be more interesting and imbalanced than classical chess positions.
'31...c4 32.g4 Rc8 33.f4 h6 34.e4 Kh7 35.Kf2 Rc5 36.e5 Ra5 37.Rxc4 Rxa2+ 38.Kg3 Ra3+ 39.Kh4 Rf3 40.g5 Kg6 41.Kg4 Rf2 42.h4 h5+ 43.Kg3 Rb2 44.Rc8 Rb3 45.Kf2 Rb4 46.Rg8+ Kf5 47.g6 Rxf4+ 48.Ke3 1-0'

See also

★ Capablanca chess

References

1. Seirawan chess
2. Seirawan chess simultaneous, photos and videos.
3. First ever Seirawan chess event with example games.

External links

★ Seirawan chess, a conservative drop chess by M. Winther.

★ Seirawan chess videos