John Chernoff

Introducing MoleChess, where playing badly is often the best move

NM ZugAddict

May 29, 202422,370 viewsEnglish (US)

Chess Chess variant Software Development

Behold and Gasp in Awe at its Majesty

(EDIT: Mole Chess Discord Link: https://discord.gg/ak6d4wagnU)

Hello Chess World,

I'd like to officially announce the beginning of a new era in chess, one where blunders are brilliant and miscalculations are mischievous: the dawning of the age of MoleChess. I'd like to announce this but unfortunately cannot as of yet as most people are tragically unaware of even the very existence of this game or where it can be played. This blog aims to change that very, very, slightly.

MOLECHESS - WHAT IS IT

MoleChess is a team chess game for six players or more (minimum three players per side). In each game there is a (secretly determined) player whose goal is to win for the opposite side. That player is... the Mole.

That's basically it. Each turn the players on the side to move can play, or rather vote, for a move. Once all the players for that side "vote" for a legal move (or time runs out for that turn), one of those votes is randomly selected to be played.

To vote out a Mole, all the players on the team (except the Mole itself) must accuse the same suspect, at which point an official vote takes place - if the suspected player is indeed the Mole, they defect to the other team where they become a "normal" player. However, if the vote was in error, nothing happens and that team's Mole is now immune from being voted out, thus enabling them to play the most fearsomely bad moves without fear of reprisal. Think of it sort of like an American Oil Company after the next election.

(EDIT #2: to reduce clutter, boards that don't start within 999 seconds are now deleted for inactivity)