Flip Chess

Flip Chess

Flip Chess is a chess variant played on a 38-square board with an unusual shape. Created by John William Brown in 1999, it is a companion game to Crazy 38’s — both are 38-square chess variants in the tradition of exploring compact, non-standard board geometries. A Java applet implementation by Ed Friedlander is available on chessvariants.com.

The Board

A 38-square board with an unusual non-rectangular shape. The board has 38 squares — 6 fewer than a standard 8×8 chess board. The compact geometry brings all pieces into conflict earlier in the game and reduces the positional depth of standard chess openings.

The Bare King Rule

Flip Chess does not use standard checkmate as its win condition. Instead:

A player whose King is the only piece remaining on the board loses immediately.

This applies regardless of whether the King is in check. Once all other pieces have been captured, the lone King loses. This shifts strategy significantly: rather than manoeuvring toward checkmate, players focus on eliminating all enemy pieces, and Kings become active fighting pieces since their loss is a forfeit condition once they are the last piece.

Special Rules

• No initial double Pawn move. Pawns may advance only one square on their first move, as in Shatranj. There is consequently no en passant.
• Win condition: Bare King (reduce opponent to King only); standard checkmate does not apply
• All other standard chess movement rules apply unless modified above

Piece Set

Standard FIDE piece set (King, Queen, Rooks, Bishops, Knights, Pawns).

Attribution

Flip Chess was created by John William Brown, 1999. Described as an ‘acclaimed 38 square variant.’ Java applet implementation by Ed Friedlander. Source: chessvariants.com/play/erf/FlipChss.html