Progressive chess

How Progressive chess is played

Progressive chess is chess in turns that grow: White makes one move, Black two, White three, Black four, and so on. The app plays the Italian rules, the rules of its championships since 1971. Everything else is as in chess.

Growing turns

Each turn has one move more than the one before, and a player must make every move of the turn, with any pieces, the same one several times if they like. Your own king may never be left in check at any moment of your turn.

Check only at the end

A move that gives check is allowed only as the last move of your turn. A player in check must escape it with the first move of the turn, and that move may not give check either, unless it is the turn’s only move.

The Italian mate

A player in check with no legal first move is mated. That includes the Italian mate: the king could escape, but every escape would give check, which is not allowed before the turn’s last move.

Stalemate

A player who cannot make every move of the turn is stalemated, a draw, also in the middle of the turn and also when the only moves left would give check too early. So a player in trouble may save the game by stalemating themselves.

En passant

A pawn that made a double step during the opponent’s last turn, and has not moved since, may be taken en passant, but only with the first move of your turn.

Draws

Ten turns in a row without a capture or a pawn move draw the game, unless the player to move can mate in that turn. A position never comes back with a turn of the same length, so there is no repetition rule. King against king, or king and one knight or bishop against king, is a draw; king and two knights is not.

The Scottish rules

In the original rules of 1947, played here as Scottish progressive chess, a check before the turn’s last move is allowed but ends the turn at once, and there is no Italian mate.

How Scottish progressive chess is played

Scottish progressive chess is Progressive chess by its original rules, as Znosko-Borovsky recorded them in 1947: White makes one move, Black two, White three, and so on, and a check ends the turn.

Growing turns

Each turn has one move more than the one before, and a player must make every move of the turn, with any pieces, the same one several times if they like. Your own king may never be left in check at any moment of your turn.

A check ends the turn

A move that gives check ends your turn at once: the moves left are lost, and the opponent’s next turn still has its full length. A player in check must escape it with the first move of the turn.

Mate and stalemate

A player in check with no legal first move is mated. A player who cannot make every move of the turn is stalemated, a draw, also in the middle of the turn.

En passant

A pawn that made a double step during the opponent’s last turn, and has not moved since, may be taken en passant, but only with the first move of your turn.

Draws

Ten turns in a row without a capture or a pawn move draw the game, unless the player to move can mate in that turn. King against king, or king and one knight or bishop against king, is a draw; king and two knights is not.

The story

Britain · recorded 1947; Italian rules 1971

When and where

Who invented Progressive chess is unknown. Eugene Znosko-Borovsky first recorded it in Lectures pour Vous in 1947; Boyer said he first saw it played in Scotland, and Hugh Courtney remembered it in England in 1944, where Gerald Abrahams and Max Ellinger had played long series of games since the start of the Second World War. Pritchard thought England in the late 1930s the likeliest origin, so the name Scottish chess may be a misnomer.

How it changed

White makes one move, Black two, White three, and so on, each turn one move longer than the last. By the original rules a check ends the turn. In 1971 Roberto Salvadori introduced the Italian rules: a check only with the turn’s last move, so a king whose every way out of check would give check is mated, the Italian mate.

Today

The Italian association AISE held national championships from 1974/75; in 1991 it had over 400 active players, and of some 7,000 games White won 53 % and Black 46 %. Deumo Polacco, with Alessandro Castelli and Mario Leoncini, gathered the masters’ games in the database PRBASE. In Ljubljana Vito Janko and Matej Guid wrote a program that plays it (2015–16), and Guid’s book of 2017 found the game almost forgotten.

Did you know?

John Beasley checked the 158 Italian mates in Castelli’s collection Matti Eccellenti: in 148 of them an ordinary mate would have followed in the next turn. The game was also called Scotch chess, and once even Blitz Chess.

Sources: D. B. Pritchard, The Classified Encyclopedia of Chess Variants (2007) · J. Beasley, Progressive Chess: the Italian rule (2011) · M. Guid, Learn and Master Progressive Chess (2017) · The Chess Variant Pages · Wikipedia · Wikipedia (it) · PRBASE: D. Polacco, A. Castelli, M. Leoncini

More games

Chess and variants

• Chess · Classic chess, or Chess960 with a shuffled back rank.
• Chess960 · Fischer random chess: the back rank starts in one of 960 setups.
• Antichess · Losing chess: give away all your pieces, captures are compulsory.
• Atomic chess · Every capture is an explosion that clears the pieces around it.
• Crazyhouse · Captured pieces change sides and can be dropped back onto the board.
• Hostage chess · Captured men become hostages and come back by exchange or from the airfield.
• Three-check · Chess where the third check wins, so every check counts.
• King of the Hill · Chess where a king that reaches the centre wins at once.
• Jeson Mor · Mongolia’s nine horses: take the centre and hold it for a move.
• Racing Kings · No pawns, no checks: the first king on the far rank wins.
• Horde · 36 white pawns storm a full black army.
• Dunsany’s chess · Lord Dunsany’s game of 1942: 32 pawns against a full army.
• Los Alamos chess · Chess on 6 × 6 without bishops, the first game a computer played (1956).
• Duck chess · After every move you move the duck, which blocks everyone. No check.
• Marseillais chess · Two moves a turn, with one piece or two; White starts with one.
• Fog of War · You only see where your pieces can move. Capture the king to win.
• Kriegspiel · Only your own pieces in sight; an umpire judges every move.
• Alice chess · Two boards: every piece that moves passes through to the other one.
• Raumschach 3D · Chess in a 5 × 5 × 5 cube: five boards stacked, and the unicorn.
• Old Raumschach · Maack’s cube as played before 1919: five pawns above the pieces.
• Friendly Chess · Nothing is captured: pieces unite and set off chain reactions.
• Ultima · Every piece captures its own way, and the immobilizer freezes.
• Gliński’s hexagonal chess · Chess on 91 hexagons: three bishops, rooks in six directions.
• McCooey’s hexagonal chess · Hexagonal chess closer to chess: seven pawns that take diagonally.
• Shafran’s hexagonal chess · Hexagonal chess on 70 cells, with castling and pawns that step three.
• Spartan chess · Persians against Spartans: chess’ army against two kings and new pieces.
• Legan chess · The armies in opposite corners; pawns step diagonally towards the far one.

Big chess

• Complete chess · The Arabic chess of the 9th century on 10 × 10, with two dabbābas a side.
• Courier chess · Medieval Germany’s chess on a 12 × 8 board, with the courier, the man and the schleich.
• Grande Acedrex · Alfonso X’s great chess on a 12 × 12 board, with lions, giraffes and a roc.
• Tamerlane chess · Timur’s great chess on an 11 × 10 board, with giraffes, camels and citadels.
• Carrera’s chess · The first chess on ten files, from a Sicilian priest’s book of 1617.
• Duke of Rutland’s chess · Fourteen files, with the concubine and two crowned rooks a side.
• Bird’s chess · Henry Bird’s ten-file chess of 1874, with the guard and the equerry.
• Capablanca chess · Ten files and two new pieces: the archbishop and the chancellor.
• Gothic chess · Ed Trice’s setup of 2000, today called Trice’s Chess.
• Capablanca Random · Capablanca chess from one of 12,118 shuffled starts.
• Embassy chess · Grand chess’ row of pieces on a 10 × 8 board.
• Janus chess · Two januses a side, each moving as a bishop or a knight.
• Grand chess · Christian Freeling’s 10 × 10 game: pawns promote only to lost pieces.
• S-chess · Chess with a hawk and an elephant in hand, placed as the back rank leaves.

The chess family

• Chaturanga · India’s ancient chess, the root of the family: take the king to win.
• Shatranj · The medieval ancestor of chess, with a weak ferz and a jumping alfil.
• Byzantine chess · Shatranj on a round board: the rook circles, pawns never promote.
• Medieval chess · Europe’s chess before 1475: the ferz and the king may leap on their first move.
• Senterej · Ethiopian chess: no turns until the first capture, then Shatranj.
• Shatar · Mongolian chess: the bers, the camel, and a mate that needs a shak.
• Makruk · Thai chess: a slow, strategic game with a counting rule.
• Ouk Chatrang · Cambodian chess: Makruk with a leap for the king and the met.
• Sittuyin · Burmese chess: set up your pieces, then promote on the diagonals.
• Kar Ouk · Ouk Chatrang where the first check wins: guard your king.
• Malay chess · Chess of the Malay world: the king leaps, a crowned pawn walks back.
• Xiangqi · Chinese chess: a river, palaces and a cannon that jumps to capture.
• Minixiangqi · Xiangqi on 7 × 7 points: no river, no advisors, no elephants.
• Manchu chess · Red’s lone chariot moves as horse and cannon too, against a full army.
• Jieqi · Xiangqi with the pieces face down: each is revealed by its first move.
• Banqi · Xiangqi’s pieces face down on half a board: turn them up, take by rank.
• Janggi · Korean chess: no river, palace diagonals and a cannon that always jumps.
• Shogi · Japanese chess: captured pieces return to the board on your side.
• Minishogi · Shogi on a 5 × 5 board: six pieces a side, short and sharp games.
• Chu shogi · Japan’s great shogi on 12 × 12: no drops, and a lion that moves twice.
• Tori shogi · Bird shogi on 7 × 7: a phoenix, quails and swallows, with drops.

More players

• Chaturaji · India’s four-handed chess: kings can be captured, captures score.
• Four Seasons Chess · Alfonso X’s chess for four from 1283: four seasons, the last king wins.
• Three-player chess · Three armies on a hexagonal board: you against two bots.
• Four-player chess · Four armies on a cross-shaped board: in teams or all against all.
• Bughouse · Two boards, two teams: what you capture goes to your partner's hand.
• Eight-player chess · Eight armies on a board of 516 squares: all against all, in pairs or four against four.
• Verney’s four-handed chess · Verney’s game of 1881: two against two, mate both enemy kings.
• Verney’s eight-handed chess · Verney’s game for eight of 1884: four against four on 448 squares.