Answers.Body: <p>That's really bad practice in my opinion. I see no reason to play without kings. if you don't know yet how the pieces move, try moving them yourself on a physical board</p>
  
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Answers.CreationDate: 2020-07-01T06:25:28.000Z
Answers.LastActivityDate: 2020-07-01T06:25:28.000Z
Answers.UserDisplayName: David
Answers.Body: <p>No engine that I’ve ever come across has this functionality. In fact it would actually be surprisingly difficult to get a chess engine to do this;</p>
  <p>The most fundamental rule of chess is that you have to checkmate your opponent’s king. A position without kings on the board wouldn’t make sense to something like Stockfish, because the game ends before the king can be captured. If you don’t have kings on the board, you essentially have to rewrite the rules of the game for the engine. This would also have the knock-on effect that, because king safety it widely considered the most important consideration in chess, you would then have to re-programme how the engine analyses the board, as king safety would no longer be a thing. By this point, once you have an engine which has different game rules and a different way of analysing the game, it doesn’t really make sense to say that it’s the same engine, but rather two different engines playing two different games. Long story short; you couldn't give a position without kings to a normal chess engine and expect to get a meaningful analysis back.</p>
  <p>If you wanted to get around this, you could set up a position where both kings are in the opposite corner, so that they’re far enough away from the action that they couldn’t get there in time to help (assuming it’s something like 3 pawns vs a knight). Alternatively, you could set up the position on a board and play against yourself, trying to find the best move for both sides.</p>
  <p>tl;dr – You would have to build an engine with this specific scenario in mind for it to work.</p>
  
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Answers.CreationDate: 2020-07-01T11:10:31.513Z
Answers.LastActivityDate: 2020-07-01T11:10:31.513Z
Answers.UserDisplayName: Jacob
Body: <p>I would like to practise playing chess against an chess engine/program, but only with a few pieces, without the kings. For example, 3 pawns against one knight.</p>
  
  <p>Does exist any chess engine/program like this?</p>
  
Comments.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 4.0
Comments.CreationDate: 2020-05-14T09:39:07.273Z
Comments.Text: What would be the goal of such game? Promoting a pawn?
Comments.UserDisplayName: user1583209
Comments.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 4.0
Comments.CreationDate: 2020-05-14T09:54:21.337Z
Comments.Text: Good question! The final goal is to practise the movement and the capture of the pieces. So, it would win the one who eats all the opponent's pieces.
Comments.UserDisplayName: Fernando Fernández de Aránguiz
Comments.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 4.0
Comments.CreationDate: 2020-05-14T13:11:49.160Z
Comments.Text: Can't you just use Stockfish but start from a position 3 pawns against knight?
Comments.UserDisplayName: SmallChess
Comments.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 4.0
Comments.CreationDate: 2020-05-14T21:28:28.697Z
Comments.Text: I've tried with Arena GUI + Stockfish UCI, but it doesn't work.
Comments.UserDisplayName: Fernando Fernández de Aránguiz
Comments.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 4.0
Comments.CreationDate: 2020-07-03T20:41:13.950Z
Comments.Text: You can use cutechess with any engine you like. you can use either a book or ive the fen directly
Comments.UserDisplayName: Finn Eggers
Tags: <engines><learning>
Title: Play against a computer, but only with a few pieces and without the kings
ThreadText: # Play against a computer, but only with a few pieces and without the kings
  
  (Asked by: username_0 on 2020-05-14)
  
  I would like to practise playing chess against an chess engine/program, but only with a few pieces, without the kings. For example, 3 pawns against one knight.
  
  Does exist any chess engine/program like this?
  
  **Tags:** engines, learning
  
  > **Comments:**
  > **username_1**: What would be the goal of such game? Promoting a pawn?  
  > **username_0**: Good question! The final goal is to practise the movement and the capture of the pieces. So, it would win the one who eats all the opponent's pieces.  
  > **username_2**: Can't you just use Stockfish but start from a position 3 pawns against knight?  
  > **username_0**: I've tried with Arena GUI + Stockfish UCI, but it doesn't work.  
  > **username_3**: You can use cutechess with any engine you like. you can use either a book or ive the fen directly  
  
  ---
  
  ## 2 answers
  
  ### Answer by username_5 on 2020-07-01. Score: 5 | Accepted answer
  
  No engine that I’ve ever come across has this functionality. In fact it would actually be surprisingly difficult to get a chess engine to do this;
  
  The most fundamental rule of chess is that you have to checkmate your opponent’s king. A position without kings on the board wouldn’t make sense to something like Stockfish, because the game ends before the king can be captured. If you don’t have kings on the board, you essentially have to rewrite the rules of the game for the engine. This would also have the knock-on effect that, because king safety it widely considered the most important consideration in chess, you would then have to re-programme how the engine analyses the board, as king safety would no longer be a thing. By this point, once you have an engine which has different game rules and a different way of analysing the game, it doesn’t really make sense to say that it’s the same engine, but rather two different engines playing two different games. Long story short; you couldn't give a position without kings to a normal chess engine and expect to get a meaningful analysis back.
  
  If you wanted to get around this, you could set up a position where both kings are in the opposite corner, so that they’re far enough away from the action that they couldn’t get there in time to help (assuming it’s something like 3 pawns vs a knight). Alternatively, you could set up the position on a board and play against yourself, trying to find the best move for both sides.
  
  tl;dr – You would have to build an engine with this specific scenario in mind for it to work.
  
  
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  ### Answer by username_4 on 2020-07-01. Score: 2
  
  That's really bad practice in my opinion. I see no reason to play without kings. if you don't know yet how the pieces move, try moving them yourself on a physical board
  
  
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