My chess coach said he wanted me for his chess team. We'd be going to official tourneys all the way up to state! I am soooooo excited.
HAPPY TO HEAR THAT AND GOOD LUCK ON YOUR TOURNEMENTS !
BTW... ever heard of "Chess 2"? It could help with training and advanced strategies.
Chess 2 starts with a Red Checker piece located in the epicenter of the board on the borders of the intersection between D4/D5/E4/E5.
Players flip a coin rather than letting White go first. Heads is White while Tails is Black.
At the end of the first player's turn, they move the Red Checker piece forwards into either D4/E4.
From that point on in the match at the end of each players turn, they can move the red piece forwards, diagonally forwards, side-to-side, BUT NEVER backwards or diagonally backwards.
This Red Checker piece is known as "The Bureaucrat".
It cannot capture any pieces.
It's primary purpose is to block potential paths on the board, which limits the potential paths that pieces can take (
acting as red tape that slows down the progress on both sides. Hence the title of "The Bureaucrat").
The second purpose of this piece is Negotiations. You can demote any of your opponent's board pieces. Should you manage to get "The Bureaucrat" to your enemy's back-line, you get to pick any of the pieces to demote and replace on the board. Queen becomes Bishop. Bishop becomes Knight. Knight becomes Rook. Rook becomes Pawn. King however cannot be demoted.
The other purpose of this Negotiations ability is to return a piece to your side of the board, at the cost of a Pawn.
Upon demoting an enemy piece, "The Bureaucrat" is returned to any of the central four spaces of the board of the enemy player's choosing.
And then the cycle repeats.
This piece demotion ability is meant to deter players from just moving "The Bereaucrat" side-to-side in order to mutually avoid the headache the piece presents, as at any point a player can betray this mutual trust and advance the piece towards your side of the board to gain an advantage.
Whaddya think? Hope this helps spice up the board on extra rainy days.