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
Infinite chess game called Courier chess was played on a slightly larger 12×8 board (96 squares) in the 12th century, and continued to be played for at least six hundred years. Japanese chess (shogi) has been played historically on boards of various sizes; the largest is taikyoku shōgi ("ultimate chess"). This chess-like game, which dates to the mid 16th century, was played on a 36×36 board (1296 squares). Each player starts with 402 pieces of 209 different types, and a well-played game would require several days of play, possibly requiring each player to make over a thousand moves. Chess player Jianying Ji