The Wonderful World of Fairy Chess

How creative design completely reinvented the classic strategy game

Some of the many alternate pieces used in games of fairy chess (Source)

Chess is one of the all-time classic abstract games. It has existed for nearly 2,000 years and continues to be one of the most popular board games in the world. Recently, a high-profile match between Ding Liren and Gukesh Dommaraju drew much media attention. Dommaraju upset the reigning champion, Liren, and is now considered the best chess player in the world.

Chess is appealing due to the massive variety of situations that can be created in each game. There are estimated to be around 10¹¹¹ different possible games of chess, an estimate so famous it is known as Shannon’s Number. This amount is so large that it exceeds the number of atoms in the universe. We will never run out of new strategies and methods for playing a good game of chess. The history of chess reflects this, as new players are constantly inventing better ways to play the game.

The rules of chess are not too difficult to understand. There are six types of pieces: pawn, rook, knight, bishop, queen, and king. Each has very specific rules for moving and capturing pieces. The goal is to capture your opponent’s king. This is usually very difficult in the beginning, so the goal is instead to capture your opponent’s other pieces while protecting your own. If you…