Marseillais chess Marseillais chess Marseillais chess (also called Double-Move chess) is a chess variant in which each player moves twice per turn. The rules of the game were first published in Marseillais local newspaper "Le Soleil" in 1925. The variant became quite popular in the late 1930s with such chess grandmasters as Alexander Alekhine, Richard Réti, Eugene Znosko-Borovsky, and André Chéron playing it. A player can either move one piece twice or move two different pieces on his turn. Castling is considered a single move. When a player gives check on the first move, he loses the second move of his turn.
First-move advantage in chess whimsically suggests 17.h4!?, forcing Black to be the one to break the symmetry. 17... Re8! Rowson notes that this is a useful waiting move, covering e7, which needs protection in some lines, and possibly supporting an eventual ...e5 (see Black's twenty-second move). White cannot copy it, since after 18.Re1 Nxf2 Black would win a pawn. 18. Be3 Nxe5! 19. dxe5 Rc6! Rowson notes that with his more active pieces, "It looks like Black has some initiative." If now 20.Nxd5, Bxe5 "is at least equal for Black". 20. Nxb5 Bxe5! 20...Nxf2? 21.Qxd5! wins. 21. Nd4 Bxd4 22. Bxd4 e5 Rowson writes,