Thread: Chess:: Variants:: Chess - with dice?

by StinkyHarry

History
Anne Sunnucks writes that there is evidence from the literature of the period that dice were used to play chess in Europe between the 11th and 14th centuries, and even earlier in Burma and India. The dice were thrown before each turn to determine the piece to be moved; the same numbering system as set forth above was used (1=pawn, 2=knight, etc.).In the Burmese form of the game, three dice were thrown and each player made three moves at a time.Vladimir Pribylinec writes that the cubes in the Cubic chess are moving as in orthochess by a symbol uppermost it is described in both editions of Pritchard´ Encyclopedia of Chess Variants, first time published in 1977-th. In the variant Protheus cubes are turned on the adjacent squares.
Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dice_chess


Each player has three dice. Each face of each dice is marked with the figures of the six pieces. A player throws all three dice of his or her colour; he or she may then move any one piece, as long as it appears on any one of the dice. A player MUST move a piece in a turn, unless no piece of the type showing on the dice is in play. If a player cannot move, he or she forfeits the move.
All normal moves and rules of chess apply: to castle, a player must show both king and rook on the dice.
If a player is in check, the check must be addressed, if possible. Throw the dice: if no piece move which would allow the check to be broken is available on the dice, then the King MUST move and the dice are ignored. If a king move is not legally available and the dice have given the player no piece move to prevent the check, then this is QUICKMATE: quickmate is NOT a draw – the winner scores ½ point and the loser 0 points.

Has anybody ever played such a variant? It is obviously a DIFFERENT game. It seems to have some antiquity, though.