Spam Log #1: Boom on the board

This blog is inspired by cFlour’s antichess blog. I will be talking about random stuff about atomic chess.

Intro

Firstly, you might ask: who are you? I can give a brief self-introduction, in Jitemihope:

Omemiji epozesewa, zanu enapa ti Epijaqevita. Gi uzo padu ladesidu tijove sejiqoda, uzo esa zemusata au vasehu ewivedevifa. Vijohupale au esejiva ti sevevica pajevu Vijohupale ga esejiva! Ie eqoja epozesewa tozekipi hipazemiqe tetijoda.

What? You can’t read Jitemihope? It’s OK, I’m never a strong atomic player, just play it for fun. Originally I used it (and other chess variants) as a distraction from real life, later I started to find it interesting. Everybody has their preferences, and maybe you’ll find out you are talented in atomic chess after starting!

Without further ado, let’s get nuking!

Rules

About the rules of atomic, you can read the new lichess official guide and ijh’s study, they can explain the rules better than me. Make sure that you understand every chapter in ijh’s study, it’s very important.

If you are really new to the variant, a good way to get familiar with the rules is to watch some games, or check out some games by the top players, for example fast-tsunami, the reigning world champion in atomic chess. A good training method is this: choose a finished game, go one move at a time. See the move notation before showing the move on the board, think about what the board situation is after the move, and then check the answer by showing the move.

I’ll also remind you of some “special rules” which are often forgotten, similar to en passant and stalemate in standard:

1. Explosions beat checks. If you can capture any piece near your opponent’s king, DO IT. You win the game. It does not matter if you are in check, or moving into check, or anything. The only exception is if your own king is also near that piece.
2. Kings can move next to each other, it’s called connected kings. (A king can't capture any piece, including the other king.) When kings are connected, they are never in check. You can’t check a connected king unless you move your king away from it. You can, however, capture a piece next to a connected king to win directly, given that your king is not near the said piece.

These are the rules that new players might forget from time to time.

Quiz

1. https://imgur.com/AFbY3KB
   Is white in check? Is white in checkmate? If not, what should white play?
2. https://imgur.com/GX16LuY
   Is black in check? If it’s white’s move, what should white play?
3. https://imgur.com/qBdDgxC
   According to atomic rules, is this a possible position (reachable after a series of legal moves)? Why?
4. Can you imagine the position after the moves 1.e4 d5 2.exd5? What should black play in that position?

The answers will be included in the next Spam Log.

Coming next in Spam Log

Now that you’ve understood the atomic rules, it’s time to play some games. You’ll need some practice to fully grasp the game idea. You might lose your first games very quickly, but don’t give up! I’ll talk about some basic tricks in the next Spam Log.

Tetijoda tafepivotu ejiva vetiva go eniva,
dinova ti otami pa vasu.
Gi uzo padu fapevutasefipu etejiva tepima,
pejiva uzo esa zevivosuqa vasenitu.

Hope you enjoy atomic chess!