Chad (chess variant) Chad (chess variant) Chad is a chess variant for two players created by Christian Freeling in 1979. It is played on an uncheckered 12×12 gameboard with one king and eight rooks per side, where rooks are able to promote to queens. The inventor's aim was "to create a game of tactical and strategical depth that was both simple and elegant to express the concept of "mate"—the 'pure' chess game". The game was played for many years at the Fanaat games club in the Netherlands and was featured in the periodical "The Gamer" 6 in May–June 1982. Each player owns a
Hostage Chess It was published in magazines "Nost-algia" (issue 375), "Eteroscacco" (86–88), and "Variant Chess" (32 and later). It was the "Recognized Variant of the Month" in January 2005 at "The Chess Variant Pages". The inventor, John Leslie, is also a philosopher. He mentions in his book "Infinite Minds" that the prevalence of chess variant inventions such as Hostage Chess has led to speculation that there could be infinite possible variations of chess. He contends these will necessarily exceed the capacity of the human mind. Hostage Chess follows all the standard rules of chess excepting how captured men are treated. Each player