Kung-Fu Chess
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Kung-Fu Chess was a real-time chess variant developed by Shizmoo Games. It was created in the early 2000s[when?] and remained on the company's website until the website shut down in 2008.[citation needed]
The game won the Audience Choice award in the 2002 Independent Games Festival.[1]
Background
The game was conceptualized in the early 2000s[when?] by Dan Goldstein as a "real-time" version of chess; it was later developed by him and his brother Joshua Goldstein under the name "Ultra Speed Chess".[citation needed] The name was later changed to "Kung-Fu Chess" to reflect the martial-arts themed sound effects that would play during the players' moves.[2] The game was published by Shizmoo Games on the company's website, and was later supplemented with additional variants (such as Four-player chess, Crazyhouse, and Bughouse chess) before the website shut down in 2008.[citation needed]
The original version was added to the ICQ instant messaging program in 2005.[citation needed]
General aspects
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In Kung-Fu Chess, either player could move any available piece at any given moment, though only one piece could be moved at a time. After a piece was moved, a predefined delay prevented it from moving again for a short period of time. This, plus the fact that piece movements were non-instantaneous, meant that speed and timing were crucial aspects of the game, as any delay could determine whether a piece was captured or whether said piece dodged the opponent's pieces.[citation needed]
In addition to this, the game's "real-time" aspect led to essential differences between Kung-Fu Chess and standard chess. For instance, checks and pins did not exist in the game, since players were not bound to one move at a time and thus could respond to threats with multiple piece movements. Checkmate and stalemate were similarly both impossible to achieve; as such, the game only ended when one's king was physically captured or if one's opponent resigned.[citation needed]
In following with the martial arts theme, the game also featured a rating system categorized by belt colors.[citation needed]
References
- ^ "2002 Finalists and Winners". Independent Games Festival. Archived from the original on 2014-03-27. Retrieved June 17, 2020.
- ^ http://archive.gamedev.net/archive/columns/interviews/shizmoo.html