Chess variants
Hostage Chess was covered in the old series of Abstract Games, for good reason: it is an excellent chess variant played with no more than a standard Chess set—something that almost everyone can lay their hands on. Hostage takes its inspiration from Shogi, and it brings with it Shogi's fierce, mutual endgame attacking. So here is Hostage Chess revisited, an annotated game as an addendum to the old series. ~ Editor
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by John Leslie
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Hostage Chess was featured in AG4, AG5, and AG7. Helped also by D. B. Pritchard’s chapter about it in his Popular Chess Variants, it’s now well known. Grandmaster Larry Kaufman thinks it “... the most interesting, exciting variant that can played with a standard chess set”; you’ll see his words at the Hostage Chess website. At that location you can also download, for free, the book Hostage Chess, plus the program HostageMaster, free as well.
Hostage uses the “drop rule” of Shogi, chess as enjoyed by millions in Japan—captured pieces can parachute back into the battle, landing on empty squares. Here, however, they first become “hostages” which must be exchanged before acting as Shogi-style paratroops. Let's say you’ve captured a Rook. By releasing it, you can force the release of a Rook, a Bishop, a Knight, or a Pawn that sits in your opponent’s prison: it’s up to you to choose which prisoner gets released. If you’ve captured a Queen, you can force the release of any prisoner. Even a released Pawn may sometimes parachute with checkmate!
HostageMaster was coded by Paul Connors, a Shogi expert. Here follows a game in which HostageMaster plays against itself. The first moves could have been played in regular Chess. You’ll learn the rules of Hostage as the game progresses.
1. e4 c5, 2. Bc4 Nc6, 3. Nf3 Nf6, 4. Qe2 e5, 5. O-O Bd6, 6. d3 O-O, 7. Bg5 Nd4, 8. Nxd4 cxd4, and now there’s a black Knight in White’s prison beside the board near what, in a battle between humans, would be White’s right hand; a white knight is similarly imprisoned near Black’s right hand. Prisoners never need to be exchanged, but in fact White forces an exchange immediately, 9. (N)N*g4 — meaning that the imprisoned black Knight is released and pushed forward into the “airfield” area near Black’s left hand, this forcing the release of the white Knight which, the rules say, must parachute at once, as it does onto square g4. See the diagram below, where the marked areas at top right and bottom left are the airfields.
Hostage uses the “drop rule” of Shogi, chess as enjoyed by millions in Japan—captured pieces can parachute back into the battle, landing on empty squares. Here, however, they first become “hostages” which must be exchanged before acting as Shogi-style paratroops. Let's say you’ve captured a Rook. By releasing it, you can force the release of a Rook, a Bishop, a Knight, or a Pawn that sits in your opponent’s prison: it’s up to you to choose which prisoner gets released. If you’ve captured a Queen, you can force the release of any prisoner. Even a released Pawn may sometimes parachute with checkmate!
HostageMaster was coded by Paul Connors, a Shogi expert. Here follows a game in which HostageMaster plays against itself. The first moves could have been played in regular Chess. You’ll learn the rules of Hostage as the game progresses.
1. e4 c5, 2. Bc4 Nc6, 3. Nf3 Nf6, 4. Qe2 e5, 5. O-O Bd6, 6. d3 O-O, 7. Bg5 Nd4, 8. Nxd4 cxd4, and now there’s a black Knight in White’s prison beside the board near what, in a battle between humans, would be White’s right hand; a white knight is similarly imprisoned near Black’s right hand. Prisoners never need to be exchanged, but in fact White forces an exchange immediately, 9. (N)N*g4 — meaning that the imprisoned black Knight is released and pushed forward into the “airfield” area near Black’s left hand, this forcing the release of the white Knight which, the rules say, must parachute at once, as it does onto square g4. See the diagram below, where the marked areas at top right and bottom left are the airfields.
Position after 9. (N)N*g4
The black airfield-Knight could now sit on its airfield for ever, but Black decides to parachute it at once: 9... N*f4.
We next see 10. Bxf4 exf4, so that now the black Knight has been imprisoned again, while Black has imprisoned a Bishop. White then decides to force another exchange, 11. (N)B*g5: Knights and Bishops are equal in value, so that the released Knight can “pay” for the release and parachuting of the bishop. (Prisoner values run from Queen down to Rook, then Knight-or-Bishop, then lastly Pawn.) White has here played riskily: the Knight that has been pushed forward into Black’s airfield might be worth a Rook on the board because there are so many empty squares onto which it could be dropped. After 11.... Be7, 12. Nxf6+ Bxf6, 13. Bxf4, we can see what HostageMaster had in mind, for White has gained a Pawn. Still, Black’s having that Knight as an airfielder is nice compensation! Next comes 13.... d6, 14. (N)N*b5 (risky once again, for now Black has two airfielders), and then 14....Be5.
Violence begins after 15. Bxe5 dxe5, 16. (B)B*c5. Thinking about what to play as White, HostageMaster hadn’t seen a hurricane just over its horizon. Playing as Black at its next move, it launches a strong attack with one of its airfielders, 16.... N*f4. The white Queen retreats, 17. Qd1, yet 17.... Qg5 forces it to return, 18. Qf3, to prevent an immediate checkmate. After Black’s 18.... Bh3, White plays 19. Re1 to make an escape square for the King. Now, however, Black sees a win starting with a check, 19.... N*e2+. The Knight has dropped onto a square protected by another Knight, so that when it is captured that other Knight can take its place: 20. Rxe2 Nxe2+. Then comes 21. Kf1 Qc1+, 22. Kxe2 (R)N*g1 mate.
We next see 10. Bxf4 exf4, so that now the black Knight has been imprisoned again, while Black has imprisoned a Bishop. White then decides to force another exchange, 11. (N)B*g5: Knights and Bishops are equal in value, so that the released Knight can “pay” for the release and parachuting of the bishop. (Prisoner values run from Queen down to Rook, then Knight-or-Bishop, then lastly Pawn.) White has here played riskily: the Knight that has been pushed forward into Black’s airfield might be worth a Rook on the board because there are so many empty squares onto which it could be dropped. After 11.... Be7, 12. Nxf6+ Bxf6, 13. Bxf4, we can see what HostageMaster had in mind, for White has gained a Pawn. Still, Black’s having that Knight as an airfielder is nice compensation! Next comes 13.... d6, 14. (N)N*b5 (risky once again, for now Black has two airfielders), and then 14....Be5.
Violence begins after 15. Bxe5 dxe5, 16. (B)B*c5. Thinking about what to play as White, HostageMaster hadn’t seen a hurricane just over its horizon. Playing as Black at its next move, it launches a strong attack with one of its airfielders, 16.... N*f4. The white Queen retreats, 17. Qd1, yet 17.... Qg5 forces it to return, 18. Qf3, to prevent an immediate checkmate. After Black’s 18.... Bh3, White plays 19. Re1 to make an escape square for the King. Now, however, Black sees a win starting with a check, 19.... N*e2+. The Knight has dropped onto a square protected by another Knight, so that when it is captured that other Knight can take its place: 20. Rxe2 Nxe2+. Then comes 21. Kf1 Qc1+, 22. Kxe2 (R)N*g1 mate.
Position after 22.... (R)N*g1 mate
This was rather a short game: from thirty to forty-five moves is more typical. Very early in the struggle, future possibilities of parachuting steered play away from moves that work well in the standard western game. In a famous fight in which he defeated Marshall, Lasker’s eighth move would have been a Hostage disaster; it would have got him mated at once by a parachuting Queen. In Hostage, you have to deal with all the usual rules of regular Chess, added to by the rules of parachuting. One of the chess-Masters quoted at the Hostage Chess website wanted to say that adding parachuting made Hostage “deeper than standard western Chess.” I couldn’t allow this, for fear of enraging many Chess-players. However, Japanese Shogi is a deeper game than western Chess if your criterion is that it has many more grades of player, where the player next above you in grade will beat you in two games out of three. That’s partly because, in Shogi, parachuting makes the field of possible moves expand far more speedily than in western Chess. Well, the same is true in Hostage.
Does that mean, then, that in Hostage experts will smash beginners even more reliably than in western Chess? Curiously, the reverse is true, providing an excuse for denying that Hostage is “deep.” Since even the world’s best players can’t see far along its rapidly branching pathways, and since its paratroops tend to drop more destructively than the paratroops of Shogi, Hostage beginners often defeat Hostage experts by seizing chances to attack. The fight hardly ever ends in a draw. Frequently there are several swings of fortune. Checkmate is often preceded by a long series of checks, the first ones being made half blindly. Play between experts and beginners will therefore almost always be exciting. And when suffering an attack whose results are near impossible to predict, anybody can lose without feeling bruised.
Before you can start playing, you need to be told about two further rules: that Pawns cannot be dropped onto first or eighth ranks, and that a Pawn reaching its seventh rank is “frozen,” unable even to give check, unless on stepping forward it could change places with a Queen, Rook, Bishop or Knight that the enemy has imprisoned. And now, all you need is a standard Chess set and maybe two saucers to use as airfields. Enjoy! ◾️
Does that mean, then, that in Hostage experts will smash beginners even more reliably than in western Chess? Curiously, the reverse is true, providing an excuse for denying that Hostage is “deep.” Since even the world’s best players can’t see far along its rapidly branching pathways, and since its paratroops tend to drop more destructively than the paratroops of Shogi, Hostage beginners often defeat Hostage experts by seizing chances to attack. The fight hardly ever ends in a draw. Frequently there are several swings of fortune. Checkmate is often preceded by a long series of checks, the first ones being made half blindly. Play between experts and beginners will therefore almost always be exciting. And when suffering an attack whose results are near impossible to predict, anybody can lose without feeling bruised.
Before you can start playing, you need to be told about two further rules: that Pawns cannot be dropped onto first or eighth ranks, and that a Pawn reaching its seventh rank is “frozen,” unable even to give check, unless on stepping forward it could change places with a Queen, Rook, Bishop or Knight that the enemy has imprisoned. And now, all you need is a standard Chess set and maybe two saucers to use as airfields. Enjoy! ◾️