Pocket mutation chess
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Pocket mutation chess is a chess variant invented by Mike Nelson in 2003.[1] In this game a player can take a piece from the board and put it into a pocket. The piece in pocket can be put back on the board later. When placing the piece into the pocket the player can mutate the piece, i.e. change it to the different piece.
[edit] Rules
Starting position in this game is the same as in standard chess. Players make moves as in standard chess. Instead of moving a player can take one of own pieces from the board and put it into the pocket, provided the pocket is empty. If the piece is placed into the pocket from the last rank, it gets promoted to the piece of the higher class. Otherwise player has an option to mutate the piece to the different piece of the same class. White cannot use the pocket on the first move. King cannot be placed into the pocket.
A piece in the pocket can be dropped later on any empty position on the board, except the last rank. A pawn can make only signle step from the first rank, but can do double step from the second one, even if it was dropped there or moved from the first rank. An enpassant rule applies as in standard chess. Pawns, which reach the last rank, don't get promoted immediately. Instead, they can be placed to the pocket and promote to the piece of the higher class.
There is no castling in this chess variant. The game is declared a draw if no capture or promotion was made for 50 consecutive moves.
[edit] Classes of the pieces
Besides usual pieces there are several fairy chess pieces in this game. All pieces are divided into the following classes. All pieces from the same class are of presumably the same (or close) value.
| Class | Usual pieces | Combined with knight | Combined with nightrider | Combined with king | Combined with nightrider and king |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  pawn |
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| 2 |  bishop |
 knight |
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| 3 |  rook |
 nightrider |
super bishop (bishop+king) | ||
| 4 |  cardinal (bishop+knight) |
super rook (rook+king) | |||
| 5 |  queen |
 chancellor (rook+knight) |
cardinal rider (bishop+nightrider) | super cardinal (bishop+knight+king) | |
| 6 | chancellor rider (rook+nightrider) | super chancellor (rook+knight+king) | super cardinal rider (bishop+nightrider+king) | ||
| 7 | amazon (queen+knight) | super chancellor rider (rook+nightrider+king) | |||
| 8 | amazon rider (queen+nightrider) |
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| Nightrider makes any number of knight moves in the same direction. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
[edit] References
- ^ Pocket mutation chess by Mike Nelson
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