Even the pawns had a nice design which clearly indicated that movement of one square forward (normally), or attacking on the diagonal, were both allowed.
https://www.reddit.com/r/mildlyinteresting/comments/c1ri78/t...
Not all of the moves were the clearest, but it was still handy while trying to learn.
Displaying usual the moves on the pieces is certainly super-handy for beginners to understand the moves, but as you've pointed out: Chess also has other nuances.
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I was showing off one night and, at the tail end of an end game, and promoted a pawn to a pawn once it reached the far rank. It didn't really help in that game (although I can envision corner cases where it could be helpful as a blocker, but any other promotion is equally useful a blocker), but I had a move that I could afford to burn and it was fun to do so I did it.
It was a fun game. 10/10, did repeat other fun (and absurd) chess games.
umm. Commendably warped, but I'm not sure that's legal?
(BTW many years ago I experimented creating chess variants, before I even knew it was a thing. I invented a number which all felt contrived, but one actually felt right and an improvement, which is the ability to take your own pieces, as well as the enemy's. Turns out that somebody's already invented it (search for 'self eliminator chess') and they considered it to have potential. The value of it was it allows you to trade off position for pieces. It really changed how the game felt for the better. FYI anyway, YMMV)
> umm. Commendably warped, but I'm not sure that's legal?
Interesting point. Here is what the FIDE handbook says about it (emphasis mine):
“When a pawn reaches the rank furthest from its starting position it must be exchanged as part of the same move on the same square for a new queen, rook, bishop or knight of the same colour. The player’s choice is not restricted to pieces that have been captured previously. This exchange of a pawn for another piece is called ‘promotion’ and the effect of the new piece is immediate.”
Source: Article 3.7.e of https://www.fide.com/FIDE/handbook/LawsOfChess.pdf
I mean: We're not playing ranked games here. It's supposed to be fun, and it was a fun game.
Self eliminator chess sounds like an interesting dynamic. I'll have to check it out. Some of the games where my thinking feels best (if that makes sense) are the games where a ravenous opponent has shewdly eaten most of my pieces.
I hope SE chess lives up to its promise! It felt right and somehow freeing not to be always hemmed in by your own pieces.
If chess is a war simulation, then: It seems like it is both brutal and useful to deliberately destroy one's own units.
(It's bad PR, always, but I'm both the PR department and the native public audience. It'll be fine on my side of the board, and it might even frighten the enemy.)
So can a promotion to rook or a bishop, if for example promotion would cause a stalemate, especially if you're in a zugzwang.
Although such situations in actual real-world chess are _exceedingly_ rare, they make for a good puzzle material.
There's a lot of other versions sold under "chess teacher", this seems to be the most modern: https://www.ebay.com/itm/266236564204?hash=item3dfcef92ec:g:...
It appears that it was originally sold as "The Educator": https://www.ebay.com/itm/325899664936?hash=item4be1223e28:g:...
Not affiliated with any of those and they probably aren't the best prices (just the first ones I found), but should give you enough to track one down.
https://sketchfab.com/cook4986/collections/instructional-che...
The Knight was by far the hardest to design, but the 3D aspect helps visualize movement across two planes (I.e., jumps)