Circular chess of the board and a different starting setup. In the citadel game, if a king reaches the citadel, a draw is forced. The starting position is essentially obtained from that of orthodox chess by cutting the board in half and bending the two halves to join at the ends. Two lines are marked on opposite sides of the board, and each set of pieces is positioned so as to straddle this line. The king and queen start on the innermost ring, with, as is the case in square chess, the queen on a square of the same colour; the bishops
Almost Chess queen and chancellor having equal strengths. For example, bishops are stronger and knights are weaker. Betza commented that Almost Chess is a good introductory chess variant for players, due to its great similarity to standard chess and the naturalness of the change from queen to chancellor. Around 1994, Betza invented Sort of Almost Chess, a variation whereby one player owns a chancellor, and the opponent owns a queen. Betza considers the chances for both sides equal, even for advanced players, since the queen and chancellor have equal strengths. Sort of Almost Chess emerged from Betza's research on the values of