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See also:

• Jordan Becker's Kriegspiel Chess page. (Link.)
• Two books on Kriegspiel have been written by David H. Li. More info on these books and other publications on Kriegspiel by David Li is available.
• A Kriegspiel Problem.
• Kriegspiel - Cincinnati style.
• Kriegspiel on the Internet Chess Server.
• Kriegspiel competition. Link to small site of Jeff Mallett with sample Kriegspiel games.
• Kriegspiel solving competition. Kriegspiel problem competition, held in fall 1999.
• Two Kriegspiel problems by Henk Swart.
• KriegLeague. Internet Kriegspiel players club, for playing Kriegspiel on chess server ICC. (Link.)

Rules

One needs three boards for the game. The main idea of Kriegspiel is that players only get to see their own pieces, but do not see the pieces of their opponent, and do not know what moves the opponent has made - they only have some partial information (see below) that allows them to guess where the opponents pieces are. Only the referee knows exactly the real position of both sets of pieces.

Players move turn-wise, just as in normal chess. Each turn, a player attempts a move. When this move is legal, the referee announces that the player has moved, and the turn is done. When the move is not legal, the referee also announces that the player attempted an illegal move, and the player must make a new attempt to move, until he makes a legal move.

All announcements by the referee are heard by both players.

When a move gives check, the referee announces this, and also announces the direction in which check is given: either on the row, on the column, on the small diagonal, on the large diagonal, or by a knight. However, the place of the checking piece is not told (but sometimes can be guessed or deduced correctly.)

When a piece captures another piece, the referee announces this, and also the field where the capture has taken place. For instance, the referee could announce: White has captured on d3. The referee does not announce with which type of piece the capture has been taken place, or which type of piece is taken. There is one exception to this latter rule, namely en-passant capture is announced, for instance, the referee could announce: Black has taken en-passant on f3.

To avoid that players have to make long series of wrong guesses of pawn captures each turn, a player may ask: Are their any pawn captures?, usually abbreviated to Any?. The referee either answers No, if the player cannot capture a piece with a pawn, or Try!, if there are one or more possible capturing moves with a pawn of the player. In the latter case, the player must make at least one attempt to capture with a pawn (if unsuccessful, the player may continue such attempts or attempt other moves at will).

In case that a player makes moves of which he knows that are illegal (for instance, asking Any when he has no pawns left), (which he might do to confuse the opponent; this is considered `bad manners'), the referee says Impossible, such that the opponent is not confused by this.

Comments

Sources

The above was authored by: Hans L. Bodlaender. The above was invented by: Henry Michael Temple.
Created on: March 01, 1996. Last modified on: March 01, 1996.

See also:

Kriegspiel. Problem solving competition. Author: Juraj Lörinc
Crazyhouse Kriegspiel. Combines Crazyhouse with Kriegspiel. By: David Dana-Bashian
Romulan Chess. Kriegspiel variant: played with a referee where pieces cloak and uncloak Author: Steve Kramer and Hans L. Bodlaender
American Kriegspiel. With help of a referee, 2 players move w/o knowing the moves of the opponent, but know where P's can capture & what enemy fo Author: Ed Friedlander
Assassin Kriegspiel. Kriegspiel variant with unknown setups and special roles for knights and queen Author: Ed Friedlander Inventor: Hubert Philips
Discreet Kriegspiel. Kriegspiel with no information about pawn captures or checks; win by capturing the opposing king Author: Ed Friedlander
Kriegspiel. With help of a referee, two players move without knowing the moves of the opponent. Author: Ed Friedlander Inventor: Henry Michael Temple
Mafeking Kriegspiel. Players choose their own setups, unknown to opponent, units adjacent by Knights (spies) are visable Author: Ed Friedlander Inventor: Hubert Philips
One-Eye Chess (Blind). Kriegspiel variant where one side can see, but lacks both Knights, a Bishop and the Queen Author: Ed Friedlander
One-Eye Chess (Sighted). Kriegspiel variant where one side can see, but lacks both Knights, a Bishop and the Queen Author: Ed Friedlander
Original Kriegspiel. With help of a referee, two players move without knowing the moves of the opponent (captured piece types revealed) Author: Ed Friedlander Inventor: Henry Michael Temple
Pickle Pot Chess (Blind). Kriegspiel variant where one side can see, but lacks both Knights, a Bishop and both Rooks Author: Ed Friedlander
Pickle Pot Chess (Sighted). Kriegspiel variant where one side can see, but lacks both Knights, a Bishop and both Rooks Author: Ed Friedlander
Welbeck Kriegspiel. Players choose their own setups, unknown to opponent Author: Ed Friedlander Inventor: Hubert Philips
Kriegspiel - positions for solving. Five kriegspiel problems Author: Juraj Lörinc
Kriegspiel - positions for solving 2. More kriegspiel problems Author: Juraj Lörinc
A Kriegspiel problem. Author: Hans L. Bodlaender Inventor: Geoffrey Foster
A Kriegspiel problem. A Kriegspiel mate in two with solution Author: Hans L. Bodlaender Inventor: Geoffrey Foster
Kriegspiel problems. Two problems to solve Author: Henk Swart
Kriegspiel Referee. Program that serves as a Kriegspiel referee. (Link) Author: Mac Inventor: Henry Michael Temple
Books on Kriegspiel. Author: David Li
Kriegspiel - Cincinnati Style. A description of Kriegspiel as played in Cincinnati in the 1970's, with a discussion of why those particular rules were used Author: David Moeser
Chess Detective: Kriegspiel Strategies, Endgames and Problems. (Link) Author: David Li
Kriegspiel: Chess Under Uncertainty. (Link) Author: David Li
Kriegspiel Zillions v 2.0 file. Zillions file to play Kriegspiel against the computer. The human player's pieces are not hidden (Zillions of Games file) By: Andreas Kaufmann

Comments

Date	Name	Rating	Comment
2006-02-21	Kriegspieler	Good	Nice page. If anyone wants to play realtime krieg online try www.chessclub.com. It's wild number 16 on there.
2005-04-07	Jim Humberd	None	Here is a story about Kreigspiel , as found on my web site at http://www.travel-tidbits.com/tidbits/003629.shtml, a portion of my “Computer Memories,” as found on my Travel-Tidbits.com site. This took place over 40 years ago.
2005-04-03	Michael Howe	None	No need to feel foolish, Roberto. We CV enthusiasts were the most foolable, because we know that Kriegspiel is a real variant that has been studied and played extensively. I'm glad that the M-Tel no-draw-offer story was real, and apparently a lot of readers though that IT was also an April Fool's story!
2005-04-03	Roberto Lavieri	None	Oh, no!. From Chessbase: 'April 1st: Forbidden draws or Kriegspiel tournament? 03.04.2005 It happens to us, year after year. We always forget that at the beginning of this month people are celebrating a pagan ritual known as 'April Fool'...'. I have to admit: it was perfectly elaborated, not only the browser-friendly tables of scores, but photos and annotated high level games. Good job, and I feel foolish.
2005-04-03	Michael Howe	None	If so, it's a very elaborate one, complete with browser-friendly game scores. I guess we'll find out next week, when they either do or do not report the results of the next rounds!

This item has a total of 11 comment(s), 4 rating(s), and an average rating of Good. View all comments for this item.

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Last modified: Monday, August 23, 2004