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Dead Ringers Chess. Double chess game with twin pieces that are captured simultaneously. (2x(8x8), Cells: 64) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
Gary Gifford wrote on Sat, Jul 29, 2006 05:38 PM EDT:Good ★★★★
I am enjoying a game of this with Adrian Alvarez de la Campa, its inventor. It is very much like playing two games of Fide Chess simultaneously... but then there are those Dead Ringers (or Doppelgangers). And that aspect adds an important strategical/tactical aspect. For example, lose your King Knight on one board, he's gone on the other too. What might be a good exchange on one board, turns out to be bad on the other... so, now you must try hard to keep an advantage on both boards. Easy to play and still very challenging.

💡📝Adrian Alvarez de la Campa wrote on Sat, Jul 29, 2006 06:45 PM EDT:
I'm glad you're enjoying our game, I'm finding it very interesting also. Thanks for your comments, I would not have had the idea for this game if not for stumbling upon your Doppelganger Chess, so thank you for that as well.

💡📝Adrian Alvarez de la Campa wrote on Mon, Aug 7, 2006 04:48 PM EDT:
I wanted to keep this game as simple as possible, but an optional variant could be played with the addition of Pawn twins, capturable the same way as the other twins. Each Pawn would have its corresponding twin on the other board. Keeping track of the pairs would become difficult as Pawns make captures and shift across the board. Over the board, different color poker chips could distinguish these stray pairs. Playing on Game Courier would require unique Pawn images of some kind.

Gary Gifford wrote on Mon, Aug 7, 2006 09:26 PM EDT:
I think you could just number the pawns 1 thru 8... and that would work. When #1 is captured on one board, then #1 is removed from the other board as well... etc.

Stephen Stockman wrote on Thu, Aug 17, 2006 05:57 PM EDT:Excellent ★★★★★
I think some clarification of the rules is required. I assume, if a piece is captured on the first move of your turn its twin is immediately removed from the other board b4 you make the second move of your turn. The rules say that the first person to capture the enemy king wins. I assume this means that check and check-mate do not apply, or do you play that you can only move into check if you are already in check-mate? Also, if a player captures a piece on the first move of his turn and removing its twin allows a (un)disclosed check on the second board you may simply capture the enemy king (and its twin) and win the game. Sounds like fun!

💡📝Adrian Alvarez de la Campa wrote on Thu, Aug 17, 2006 08:32 PM EDT:
Thanks for the comments, Stephen. Your interpretation of the rules are correct, and check and checkmate do not apply.

I am also going to add the variant rule (discussed below) to the page and add a new preset.


Christine Bagley-Jones wrote on Fri, Sep 22, 2006 09:22 AM EDT:Excellent ★★★★★
this game is pretty 'out there' too, extremely interesting. Looked a bit at the game courier games, seems to play very good, congrats.

💡📝Adrian Alvarez de la Campa wrote on Sat, Sep 23, 2006 01:17 AM EDT:
Thank you! It would be a good idea to put a link to the game logs on this page; I just wish I knew how... Anyway, let me know if you're up for a game... : )

Stephen Stockman wrote on Sat, Sep 23, 2006 05:01 AM EDT:Excellent ★★★★★
This is a very fun and intriguing game, good job adrian.
I'm wondering if you want to add it to the 2006 Chess Variants World
Championship starting now.

(zzo38) A. Black wrote on Fri, Feb 17, 2012 12:39 PM EST:
Another possible variant is one in which when a pawn promotes, it remains paired and the one it is paired with changes into the new kind of piece that it promoted to (this is based on a similar rule in Communist Chess).

Kevin Pacey wrote on Thu, Dec 14, 2017 12:31 AM EST:

I'm not clear on what happens in this variant if a pawn is on the 7th rank on a given board, and there are as yet no captured (non-pawn) enemy pieces from that given board. Assuming such a pawn on the 7th rank cannot yet legally promote to anything (nor be allowed to the 8th rank), does anyone know if the pawn in question could still be able to give check to an enemy king on the 8th rank? Perhaps it can give such a check, as similarly happens in a number of Fergus' invented variants.

P.S.: In case it's not clear, in the game's 2-board diagram, the non-pawn pieces that are not coloured (specially at their base) are still considered to be paired, with the same not coloured pieces on the opposite board. For example, the White rook on a1 is paired with the White rook on a1 on the other board in the setup (similar story for the White queens, and for each of the White light-and dark-squared bishops on each board). Looks like a cool game, aside from my rules interpretation question above.


Adrian wrote on Tue, Jun 8, 2021 09:19 AM EDT:

I'd like to playtest a variant of this where one of the boards is mirrored. So capturing an enemy piece on one board would eliminate a friendly piece on the other.


Adrian wrote on Tue, Jun 8, 2021 11:58 PM EDT in reply to Kevin Pacey from Thu Dec 14 2017 12:31 AM EST:

In the case a pawn is on the 7th rank without a piece captured (unlikely), let's say you can move it to the 8th rank and remains a pawn unless its twin promotes later.


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