Spell Chess Club

123 ارکان
21 ستمبر، 2023
116 Events Played

Spell Chess is an imaginatively crafted variant. It's the best one in the /variants part of Chess.com. Sort of close to chess, and also unique. All of the standard rules apply, but each player has 5 freeze spells and 2 jump spells, and these spells make game (especially the opening) highly cutthroat and tactical. The freeze spell freezes everything within a 3x3 section of the board, including one's own pieces. But players may move through the 3x3 section, or capture things inside the 3x3 section. Players can only use one spell per turn, and it takes a cooldown period of three full moves before a player can use the same spell again. But players may use the two different spells on consecutive moves. The jump spell allows Bishops, Rooks, and Queens to jump over one enemy or allied piece. (Pawns may also exploit this rule by jumping over a piece from the second to the fourth ranks but it's quite rare that this happens). This completely changes the openings. Most of Black's openings lose by force, because White can aim for Bb5 and Qh5, threatening to jump at either d7 or f7, and also freezing Black's pieces. In response to 1.e4 by White, Black has 1...Nc6, 1...c6, 1...e6, or 1...e5. Some strong players have told me that the last two options are barely not losing by force. My very first game of Spell Chess, played before I had properly understood the rules, went like this. 
In this club we play spell chess and train everyone our aim is to be the best club in spell chess