RED ♞ FOOL CHESS

Red Fool Chess © 2020 Amy Johnson · official rules · Carbuncle Books

RED FOOL CHESS — a chess variant by Amy Johnson (2020). Ruleset V4 (test), as enacted.

Two armies take the field as they always have — but a third figure walks among them. The Red Fool is a cowardly court jester and assassin who works for both sides: a mercenary without a flag, a coward without shame, a killer without loyalty. He wears neither white nor blue. He cannot be bought off, captured, or removed from the board. He runs when threatened, kills only when the running is over, and cowers against the wall only when he can neither flee nor kill.

The board and setup. The board is 8 files by 10 ranks — a standard board with one extra rank behind each army. White stands on ranks 1–2, Black on ranks 9–10, in the ordinary arrangement (queens on the d-file, kings on the e-file). Because of the taller board, each queen begins on the opposite color from classical chess. The Red Fool begins on e6, slightly toward Black’s side.

All ordinary pieces move exactly as in standard chess. Pawns double-step from their home ranks (2 and 9), capture en passant, and promote on the far ranks (10 and 1). Castling is unchanged — save that the king may not castle out of, through, or into a square watched by the enemy or by the Fool. No piece may ever move onto the Fool’s square: he can neither be captured nor stepped over, sliders stop against him as against a wall, and he can never be taken en passant — indeed, if he murders a pawn in the very instant of its double step, the right to take that pawn en passant dies with it.

The Fool moves as a knight — but never of his own free will. He resolves once after each move: a single leap in answer to a single threat, then falls still until the next move stirs him again.

The Laws of the Fool:

1. He stirs only when threatened. After any move by either player, if the Fool’s square is attacked by any piece of either color — including the moving player’s own — he must answer, once, if he legally can. If no blade points at him, he does not move. A blade counts if it points, not if it may lawfully fall: pins are ignored, and a pawn’s diagonal or a king’s reach frightens him no less for the law that none of them may ever take him.

2. He flees to the heart of the board first. His first thought is a safe empty interior square a knight’s leap away — not on the outer files or the top and bottom ranks — where, once he lands, no piece of either color attacks him. If one exists he takes it and weighs no other course.

3. If he cannot flee inward, he kills. With no safe interior square, he turns assassin. He strikes only a victim whose square, once he stands on it, leaves him unmenaced by every piece on the board (a defender, a second attacker, even a friendly watcher, and he will not make the kill). Among safe kills he takes the lowest-valued — pawn before knight, knight before bishop, bishop before rook, rook before queen — murdering either color alike. You can lose your own piece to him on your own move. He never strikes a king.

4. He will not cling to the wall. The rim is beneath him: with no safe interior square and no safe kill, he does not stoop to the outer files or the far ranks — he simply freezes where he stands. One exemption: if his blade is at a king’s throat when he is threatened, he will take a safe empty edge square rather than freeze mid-check — even the Fool knows a jester must not hold a crown hostage from a standstill. (This replaces the old V3 “coward’s last resort” edge flight: the only thing that now draws him to the wall is murder, or the shame of a frozen check.)

5. When every road is watched, he freezes. With nothing safe of any kind, he stands his ground and does not move, even under the blade.

6. The mover chooses his ties. Among several equally lawful answers within one rank, the player whose turn it is decides. He never mixes ranks: a higher rung, if available, is always taken whole.

7. He cannot be killed or entered. No piece may capture him or move onto his square. He blocks lines and squares for both armies, never captures a king, and can never be the reason a king is captured.

The order of his mind, in one breath: safe flight inward → safe cheapest kill → (with his blade at a king’s throat, and only then) safe flight to the edge → freeze. He always takes the highest rung available and never looks lower.

Check and the Fool. The Fool gives real check, like any knight, and a knight’s check can be neither blocked nor captured. But a coward’s check can be answered a way no other allows: frighten the Fool himself. Any move that attacks his square compels him to answer by his own laws — and if his answer carries him out of range of your king, the check is broken. A move counts as an escape only if, after the Fool resolves, he no longer checks you; where he leaves several answers, you must pick one that frees you.

He will not knife his own patron. If the move that stirs the Fool would force him — by every lawful answer — to end with his blade on the moving player’s own king (by his own leap or by a line his departure uncovers), his nerve fails and he freezes rather than betray his master. No piece changes hands. If that frozen Fool was already checking the mover, the move simply failed to break the check and is illegal. (This replaces the old “murdered the war” draw: the Fool’s cowardice now stays his hand instead of ending the game.)

The Fool is no shield. Your move must leave your king unattacked by the enemy at the instant it completes, before the Fool answers: you may not rely on his forced leap to block a line or carry off an attacker for you. Only a check from the Fool himself may be answered by frightening the Fool.

Ends of the game. Checkmate wins. Stalemate draws. Fifty-move and threefold repetition draw as in ordinary chess — the Fool’s kills, like any capture, reset the fifty-move count — and repetition counts the Fool’s square among the rest. But a checkmate in which the Fool is the only piece giving check is no victory for anyone — it is a draw, for no crown can claim the jester’s kill. If a real piece checks the mated king as well, the mate stands and the game is won in the ordinary way.

Adjudicating the Fool — quick reference. After every move, before the turn passes: (1) Is the Fool’s square attacked by any piece of either color (pins ignored)? If no, he stays. If yes: (2) list his eight knight-squares, discard off-board and the kings’ squares, and mark as safe those where he’d land unattacked. (3) Resolve in strict priority, taking the first rank with any option: (a) safe empty interior square; (b) safe capture, lowest value P<N<B<R<Q; (c) only if the Fool is currently giving check to either king, safe empty edge square; (d) otherwise freeze. Mover breaks ties within a rank. (4) Legality is tested twice: your move alone must not leave your king attacked by the enemy — the Fool’s forced answer is never a shield — and the whole move (your move + the Fool’s answer) must not leave your king in check from anything, Fool included; if every Fool answer would check your own king he freezes instead. (5) With no legal move: real check → checkmate (opponent wins); Fool-only check → draw; no check → stalemate (draw). Values for his targeting: P1, N2, B3, R4, Q5 — note knight is cheaper than bishop.

Pieces currently menacing the Fool are outlined in dashed red.