Answers.Body: <p>Game: <strong>Race to the Finish</strong></p>
  <p>I play this with the juniors at my local club to help them build their pattern recognition and endgame skills, not sure how it would work online</p>
  <h2>Audience</h2>
  <p>All levels</p>
  <h2>Pros</h2>
  <ul>
  <li>Encourages calculation</li>
  <li>Builds habits and pattern recognition</li>
  </ul>
  <h2>Rules</h2>
  <p>Normal rules of chess apply. A starting position is chosen that leaves the white player completely winning with a zero or almost zero chance of losing or drawing</p>
  <p>The position is set up on multiple boards (2 is normal, but no reason you can't do more)</p>
  <p>One player who is confident they can play optimal or close to optimal moves (such as the tutor) will play the black pieces on all boards and plays with the goal of surviving the lost position as long as possible</p>
  <p>Each of the competitors (students) plays on one board as white. They each play one move, then the tutor plays one move on all boards, to ensure the move count on all boards stays in sync</p>
  <p>The goal for the competitors is to checkmate in as few moves as possible, they are racing against each other. Whoever gets checkmate in the fewest moves is declared the winner, and the other board(s) can then be abandoned or played to a finish just for fun</p>
  <p>The starting position is decided by the tutor and can be tailored to the ability of the competitors, for example for complete beginners you might have a simple K v KRR or K v KQ, and for intermediate players you can select more complex positions such as KP v KRP where the competitor needs to calculate if its worth 'spending' the moves to promote their pawn or just go ahead and mate with the lone rook. Advanced players can get the same entertainment by applying increasingly complex starting positions</p>
  
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 4.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2023-07-02T10:39:30.700Z
Answers.LastActivityDate: 2023-07-02T10:39:30.700Z
Answers.UserDisplayName: Darren H
Answers.Body: <p>Exercise: <strong>Maze</strong></p>
  <h2>Audience</h2>
  <p>Complete beginners</p>
  <h2>Pros</h2>
  <ul>
  <li>Much simpler compared to chess</li>
  </ul>
  <h2>Rules</h2>
  <p>The player has only a few pieces (sometimes only 1 piece), and oppenents pieces are frozen (they do not move). A square is marked as target. The aim of the exercise is to get a piece to the target square by moving pieces using their standard chess movement.</p>
  <p>A more complicated variant include forbidding moving pieces to squares where they can be captured by enemy forces.</p>
  
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 4.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2023-07-01T06:37:14.390Z
Answers.LastActivityDate: 2023-07-01T06:37:14.390Z
Answers.UserDisplayName: Cyriac Antony
Answers.Body: <p>Game: <strong>Chess 960</strong> (also called Fischer random chess)</p>
  <h2>Pros</h2>
  <ul>
  <li>Forces players to think conscisouly about development rather than playing a memorised line.</li>
  </ul>
  <h2>Cons</h2>
  <ul>
  <li>The castling rules are too complicated compared to chess</li>
  </ul>
  <h2>Rules</h2>
  <p>Before the game, a starting position is randomly determined and set up, subject to certain requirements. White's pieces (not pawns) are placed randomly on the first rank, following two rules:</p>
  <ol>
  <li>The bishops must be placed on opposite-color squares.</li>
  <li>The king must be placed on a square between the rooks.</li>
  </ol>
  <p>Black's pieces are placed equal-and-opposite to White's pieces. (For example, if the white king is randomly determined to start on f1, then the black king is placed on f8.) Pawns are placed on the players' second ranks as in classical chess.</p>
  <p>After setup, the game is played the same as classical chess in all respects, with the exception of castling from the different possible starting positions for king and rooks.</p>
  <h2>Links</h2>
  <p>General info.: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fischer_random_chess" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Wikipedia</a><br />
  (Forum) discussions: <a href="https://www.chess.com/forum/view/general/chess-960-good-or-bad-for-chess-as-a-game" rel="nofollow noreferrer">chess.com</a>, <a href="https://lichess.org/forum/general-chess-discussion/why-chess-960-is-bad" rel="nofollow noreferrer">lichess.org</a>, <a href="https://en.chessbase.com/post/the-problem-with-chess960" rel="nofollow noreferrer">chessbase.com</a></p>
  
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 4.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2023-07-01T06:38:32.707Z
Answers.Text: Most of the links given as discussion mention cons of chess 960.
Answers.UserDisplayName: Cyriac Antony
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 4.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2023-07-01T06:20:43.520Z
Answers.LastActivityDate: 2023-07-01T06:20:43.520Z
Answers.UserDisplayName: Cyriac Antony
Answers.Body: <p>Game: <strong>Capture all</strong></p>
  <h2>Audience</h2>
  <p>Complete beginner to Intermediate</p>
  <h2>Pros</h2>
  <ul>
  <li>Allows student to figure out the importance of the material/force aspect of chess by themselves (e.g. gives practice on hanging pieces and exchanges).</li>
  </ul>
  <h2>Cons</h2>
  <ul>
  <li>Games could get too long (and probably complicated).</li>
  </ul>
  <h2>Rules</h2>
  <p>The initial position is the same as in chess, except for absence of kings. The aim of the game is to capture all opponent pieces.</p>
  <p>A variant of the game include both kings in the initial positon, but there is no check or checkmate.</p>
  <p><em>Comment:</em> One could use a different set of pieces at the start of the game and/or use a different starting position. Starting with only a few pieces which are suitably placed could make the game shorter.</p>
  <h2>Links</h2>
  <p>General info.: <a href="https://greenchess.net/game.php?try&amp;v=capture-all" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Greenchess</a></p>
  
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 4.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2023-07-01T10:43:38.323Z
Answers.LastActivityDate: 2023-07-02T04:37:58.957Z
Answers.LastEditDate: 2023-07-02T04:37:58.957Z
Answers.UserDisplayName: Cyriac Antony
Answers.Body: <p>Game: <strong>Race</strong> (new)<br />
  This is a gamified version of maze.</p>
  <h2>Audience</h2>
  <p>Complete beginners</p>
  <h2>Pros</h2>
  <ul>
  <li>Consistent with the chess rules (except the rules for ending the game).<br />
  For example, players turns are correct.</li>
  </ul>
  <h2>Rules</h2>
  <p>In race, there is no king &amp; pieces are almost randomly placed on board. A target square is marked for white, and one for black. Whoever reaches their target square first wins.</p>
  <p>Comment: I usually this before students know about capture.</p>
  
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 4.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2023-07-01T06:46:28.497Z
Answers.LastActivityDate: 2023-07-01T07:18:57.807Z
Answers.LastEditDate: 2023-07-01T07:18:57.807Z
Answers.UserDisplayName: Cyriac Antony
Answers.Body: <p>Exercise: <strong>Capture the stars</strong></p>
  <h2>Audience</h2>
  <p>Complete beginners</p>
  <h2>Pros</h2>
  <ul>
  <li>Much simpler compared to chess</li>
  </ul>
  <h2>Rules</h2>
  <p>The player has only a few pieces (sometimes only 1 piece), and there are no opponent pieces. A number of squares are marked by stars. The aim of the exercise is to capture all stars.</p>
  <p>To make the exercise a bit more challenging, encourage students to complete the task with as few moves as possible.</p>
  <h2>Links</h2>
  <p>Available to play on: <a href="https://lichess.org/learn#/1" rel="nofollow noreferrer">lichess</a>, <a href="https://www.chessmatec.com/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">chessMatec for kids</a> (both available as mobile apps)</p>
  
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 4.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2023-07-01T09:53:03.187Z
Answers.Text: Note that Knight tour is almost a special case of the challenging version of this exercise with only 1 knight and stars on all other squares (the only difference is that the knight should return to the original square in Knight tour).
Answers.UserDisplayName: Cyriac Antony
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 4.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2023-07-01T06:52:53.710Z
Answers.LastActivityDate: 2023-07-01T07:19:31.147Z
Answers.LastEditDate: 2023-07-01T07:19:31.147Z
Answers.UserDisplayName: Cyriac Antony
Answers.Body: <p>Game: <em>Knights dominate the board</em><br />
  (goes by different names)</p>
  <h2>Audience</h2>
  <p>Complete beginners<br />
  (The purpose is to teach movement of knights)</p>
  <h2>Cons</h2>
  <ul>
  <li>The rule that visited squares cannot be revisited is an important part of this game, which is not in chess.</li>
  </ul>
  <h2>Rules</h2>
  <p>In this variant, both sides have only knights and they have the same number of knights (typically 1 or 2). The board size could be different from 8x8, and there is a lot of choice of intial positions. Capturing is not allowed.
  Player move in alternate turns. A square visited earlier cannot by re-visited (in one variant, squares visited by oppenent knights cannot be re-visited, but no problem with squares visited by player's own knights).
  Let's call these no-revisit rule and no-opponent-revisit rule.</p>
  <p>The aim of the game varies between variants. With no-revisit rule, the game ends when a side has no more moves. With no-opponent-revisit-rule, the game ends when the number of squares visited by a side reach a stipulated number (e.g. visit 13 squares to win the game).</p>
  <p>In some variants, a piece is not allowed to move to square under the attack of an opponent piece.</p>
  <h2>Links</h2>
  <p>In mobile app omnichess: <a href="https://www.omnichess.club/variant/benighted" rel="nofollow noreferrer">benighted</a></p>
  
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 4.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2023-07-02T07:42:54.020Z
Answers.Text: Another nice name for the game would be "Knight's word tour".
Answers.UserDisplayName: Cyriac Antony
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 4.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2023-07-01T11:03:41.997Z
Answers.LastActivityDate: 2023-07-02T07:42:21.943Z
Answers.LastEditDate: 2023-07-02T07:42:21.943Z
Answers.UserDisplayName: Cyriac Antony
Body: <p>Chess 960 popularised by Fischer could be useful to teach opening principles (mainly because the players has to think about development consciously). <a href="https://chess.stackexchange.com/users/102/lapingvino">LaPingvino</a> asked &quot;<a href="https://chess.stackexchange.com/q/76/14678">What other games or chess variants are useful to improve your chess skills?</a>&quot; (by the way, its current answers include blindfold chess and Japanese chess).</p>
  <p>I am interested in exercises and games that are useful to teach chess. This is beyond the scope of LaPingvino's question since exercises are included. There are exercises and games already used to teach chess especially to complete beginers, such as maze and capture the stars (e.g. <a href="https://lichess.org/learn#/1" rel="noreferrer">lichess</a>). Feel free to include exercises and games you create (provided they are useful in chess coaching).</p>
  <p><strong>Please post only one exercise or game per answer</strong>, and mention its utility in a chess coaching program as bullet points. You are welcome to write cons as well. Many chess variants are discouraged to use in chess class because of game dynamics being very much different from chess.</p>
  <p>Also, <strong>I request to vote the answers based on the <em>utility</em> in a chess coaching program</strong>, not by the appeal of the exercise/game of itself.</p>
  <p>PS: To chess coaches interested in including chess-like games, I would recommend to select a small number of chess-like games, and to ensure that they are visually different from each other and from chess.</p>
  
Comments.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 4.0
Comments.CreationDate: 2023-07-02T08:07:13.640Z
Comments.Text: I think *mini-game* in "puzzle-mode" or "game-mode" is good to be used as the game part of a chess coaching session (for students who know piece movement, this is better than other exercises/games I guess). In "puzzle-mode", a not-so-hard puzzle is given and students play it out on their own (discussion allowed); afterwards, the coach can discuss the puzzle with the class. The "game-mode" is almost the same as chess, except that the starting position have less pieces on the board (so that the game will be over faster than a usual chess game).
Comments.UserDisplayName: Cyriac Antony
Comments.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 4.0
Comments.CreationDate: 2023-07-02T12:16:20.753Z
Comments.Text: Feel free to propose chess-like exercises/games useful in online/offline chess coaching.
Comments.UserDisplayName: Cyriac Antony
Tags: <chess-variants><teaching><coach>
Title: Chess-like games and exercises that are useful for chess coaching
ThreadText: # Chess-like games and exercises that are useful for chess coaching
  
  (Asked by: username_0 on 2023-07-01)
  
  Chess 960 popularised by Fischer could be useful to teach opening principles (mainly because the players has to think about development consciously). [LaPingvino](https://chess.stackexchange.com/users/102/lapingvino) asked "[What other games or chess variants are useful to improve your chess skills?](https://chess.stackexchange.com/q/76/14678)" (by the way, its current answers include blindfold chess and Japanese chess).
  
  I am interested in exercises and games that are useful to teach chess. This is beyond the scope of LaPingvino's question since exercises are included. There are exercises and games already used to teach chess especially to complete beginers, such as maze and capture the stars (e.g. [lichess](https://lichess.org/learn#/1)). Feel free to include exercises and games you create (provided they are useful in chess coaching).
  
  **Please post only one exercise or game per answer**, and mention its utility in a chess coaching program as bullet points. You are welcome to write cons as well. Many chess variants are discouraged to use in chess class because of game dynamics being very much different from chess.
  
  Also, **I request to vote the answers based on the *utility* in a chess coaching program**, not by the appeal of the exercise/game of itself.
  
  PS: To chess coaches interested in including chess-like games, I would recommend to select a small number of chess-like games, and to ensure that they are visually different from each other and from chess.
  
  **Tags:** chess-variants, teaching, coach
  
  > **Comments:**
  > **username_0**: I think *mini-game* in "puzzle-mode" or "game-mode" is good to be used as the game part of a chess coaching session (for students who know piece movement, this is better than other exercises/games I guess). In "puzzle-mode", a not-so-hard puzzle is given and students play it out on their own (discussion allowed); afterwards, the coach can discuss the puzzle with the class. The "game-mode" is almost the same as chess, except that the starting position have less pieces on the board (so that the game will be over faster than a usual chess game).  
  > **username_0**: Feel free to propose chess-like exercises/games useful in online/offline chess coaching.  
  
  ---
  
  ## 7 answers
  
  ### Answer by username_1 on 2023-07-02. Score: 4
  
  Game: **Race to the Finish**
  
  I play this with the juniors at my local club to help them build their pattern recognition and endgame skills, not sure how it would work online
  
  ## Audience
  
  All levels
  
  ## Pros
  
  * Encourages calculation
  * Builds habits and pattern recognition
  
  ## Rules
  
  Normal rules of chess apply. A starting position is chosen that leaves the white player completely winning with a zero or almost zero chance of losing or drawing
  
  The position is set up on multiple boards (2 is normal, but no reason you can't do more)
  
  One player who is confident they can play optimal or close to optimal moves (such as the tutor) will play the black pieces on all boards and plays with the goal of surviving the lost position as long as possible
  
  Each of the competitors (students) plays on one board as white. They each play one move, then the tutor plays one move on all boards, to ensure the move count on all boards stays in sync
  
  The goal for the competitors is to checkmate in as few moves as possible, they are racing against each other. Whoever gets checkmate in the fewest moves is declared the winner, and the other board(s) can then be abandoned or played to a finish just for fun
  
  The starting position is decided by the tutor and can be tailored to the ability of the competitors, for example for complete beginners you might have a simple K v KRR or K v KQ, and for intermediate players you can select more complex positions such as KP v KRP where the competitor needs to calculate if its worth 'spending' the moves to promote their pawn or just go ahead and mate with the lone rook. Advanced players can get the same entertainment by applying increasingly complex starting positions
  
  
  ---
  
  ### Answer by username_0 on 2023-07-01. Score: 3
  
  Exercise: **Maze**
  
  ## Audience
  
  Complete beginners
  
  ## Pros
  
  * Much simpler compared to chess
  
  ## Rules
  
  The player has only a few pieces (sometimes only 1 piece), and oppenents pieces are frozen (they do not move). A square is marked as target. The aim of the exercise is to get a piece to the target square by moving pieces using their standard chess movement.
  
  A more complicated variant include forbidding moving pieces to squares where they can be captured by enemy forces.
  
  
  ---
  
  ### Answer by username_0 on 2023-07-01. Score: 1
  
  Game: **Chess 960** (also called Fischer random chess)
  
  ## Pros
  
  * Forces players to think conscisouly about development rather than playing a memorised line.
  
  ## Cons
  
  * The castling rules are too complicated compared to chess
  
  ## Rules
  
  Before the game, a starting position is randomly determined and set up, subject to certain requirements. White's pieces (not pawns) are placed randomly on the first rank, following two rules:
  
  1. The bishops must be placed on opposite-color squares.
  2. The king must be placed on a square between the rooks.
  
  Black's pieces are placed equal-and-opposite to White's pieces. (For example, if the white king is randomly determined to start on f1, then the black king is placed on f8.) Pawns are placed on the players' second ranks as in classical chess.
  
  After setup, the game is played the same as classical chess in all respects, with the exception of castling from the different possible starting positions for king and rooks.
  
  ## Links
  
  General info.: [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fischer_random_chess)  
  (Forum) discussions: [chess.com](https://www.chess.com/forum/view/general/chess-960-good-or-bad-for-chess-as-a-game), [lichess.org](https://lichess.org/forum/general-chess-discussion/why-chess-960-is-bad), [chessbase.com](https://en.chessbase.com/post/the-problem-with-chess960)
  
  > **Comments:**
  > **username_0**: Most of the links given as discussion mention cons of chess 960.  
  
  ---
  
  ### Answer by username_0 on 2023-07-01. Score: 1
  
  Game: **Capture all**
  
  ## Audience
  
  Complete beginner to Intermediate
  
  ## Pros
  
  * Allows student to figure out the importance of the material/force aspect of chess by themselves (e.g. gives practice on hanging pieces and exchanges).
  
  ## Cons
  
  * Games could get too long (and probably complicated).
  
  ## Rules
  
  The initial position is the same as in chess, except for absence of kings. The aim of the game is to capture all opponent pieces.
  
  A variant of the game include both kings in the initial positon, but there is no check or checkmate.
  
  *Comment:* One could use a different set of pieces at the start of the game and/or use a different starting position. Starting with only a few pieces which are suitably placed could make the game shorter.
  
  ## Links
  
  General info.: [Greenchess](https://greenchess.net/game.php?try&v=capture-all)
  
  
  ---
  
  ### Answer by username_0 on 2023-07-01. Score: 1
  
  Game: **Race** (new)  
  This is a gamified version of maze.
  
  ## Audience
  
  Complete beginners
  
  ## Pros
  
  * Consistent with the chess rules (except the rules for ending the game).  
    For example, players turns are correct.
  
  ## Rules
  
  In race, there is no king & pieces are almost randomly placed on board. A target square is marked for white, and one for black. Whoever reaches their target square first wins.
  
  Comment: I usually this before students know about capture.
  
  
  ---
  
  ### Answer by username_0 on 2023-07-01. Score: 1
  
  Exercise: **Capture the stars**
  
  ## Audience
  
  Complete beginners
  
  ## Pros
  
  * Much simpler compared to chess
  
  ## Rules
  
  The player has only a few pieces (sometimes only 1 piece), and there are no opponent pieces. A number of squares are marked by stars. The aim of the exercise is to capture all stars.
  
  To make the exercise a bit more challenging, encourage students to complete the task with as few moves as possible.
  
  ## Links
  
  Available to play on: [lichess](https://lichess.org/learn#/1), [chessMatec for kids](https://www.chessmatec.com/) (both available as mobile apps)
  
  > **Comments:**
  > **username_0**: Note that Knight tour is almost a special case of the challenging version of this exercise with only 1 knight and stars on all other squares (the only difference is that the knight should return to the original square in Knight tour).  
  
  ---
  
  ### Answer by username_0 on 2023-07-01. Score: 1
  
  Game: *Knights dominate the board*  
  (goes by different names)
  
  ## Audience
  
  Complete beginners  
  (The purpose is to teach movement of knights)
  
  ## Cons
  
  * The rule that visited squares cannot be revisited is an important part of this game, which is not in chess.
  
  ## Rules
  
  In this variant, both sides have only knights and they have the same number of knights (typically 1 or 2). The board size could be different from 8x8, and there is a lot of choice of intial positions. Capturing is not allowed.
  Player move in alternate turns. A square visited earlier cannot by re-visited (in one variant, squares visited by oppenent knights cannot be re-visited, but no problem with squares visited by player's own knights).
  Let's call these no-revisit rule and no-opponent-revisit rule.
  
  The aim of the game varies between variants. With no-revisit rule, the game ends when a side has no more moves. With no-opponent-revisit-rule, the game ends when the number of squares visited by a side reach a stipulated number (e.g. visit 13 squares to win the game).
  
  In some variants, a piece is not allowed to move to square under the attack of an opponent piece.
  
  ## Links
  
  In mobile app omnichess: [benighted](https://www.omnichess.club/variant/benighted)
  
  > **Comments:**
  > **username_0**: Another nice name for the game would be "Knight's word tour".  
  
  ---
  
  