In terms of chess, there is a great deal of variety at this year’s MSO and most events have cash prizes. The UK Chess 960 Rapid Championship will be a one-day tournament on August 25th, followed by a new variant called Colour Chess that evening. August 20th will feature a standard rapid tournament followed by an evening of Chess Variants, which is a new addition. Additional tournaments include Chess Problem Solving (Puzzles) event and an Exchange Chess tournament on Aug 26th. There will also be a Blitz event on August 18th. Visit our registration page for more info, rules, and to secure your spot.
The evening Chess Variants tournament will feature 5 double rounds of the following variants:
- Round 1: Losing Chess. 3min + 5s increment per move
- Round 2: Monster Chess. 3min + 5s increment per move
- Round 3: Knight-Relay Chess. 5min + 10s increment per move
- Round 4: Atomic Chess. 5min + 5s increment per move.
- Round 5: Coin Chess. 5min + 5s increment per move.
Atomic Chess: Unknown inventor
Rules: Normal rules apply, but there is no check or checkmate.
When a piece is captured, an explosion occurs on the capture square. The explosion removes:
- the capturing piece
- the captured piece.
- all pieces, except pawns, on surrounding orthogonal squares (ie. a king’s move away)
A player wins by removing the opponents’ king (by direct capture or explosion).
Moves which cause a player’s own king to explode are not allowed.
Diving Chess
A quirky and truly unique chess variant called Diving Chess will have its annual world championship run on the evening of Friday, August 23rd.
Diving Chess is like regular chess except that the board is submerged in a pool and players can think for as long as they can hold their breath for each move. It was popularized by a BBC Breakfast video this year.
There are no qualifiers and everyone is welcome.
