wild

  Wild is a little different than the other categories of boards (see "boards"
help file) in that the starting positions are non-standard.  Because wild
games are fundamentally different than regular chess, they are rated
separately from blitz and standard chess games.  The wild ratings, however, do
not take into account the time controls; all wild games are rated on the same
basis.

  Here are the major variations of wild that are rated:

Style 0:  White has the typical set-up at the start.  Black's pieces are the
same, except that the King and Queen are reversed, so they are not on the same
files as White's King and Queen.  Castling is done similarly to normal chess:  
o-o-o indicates long castling and o-o short castling.

Style 1:  In this variant both sides have the same set of pieces as in normal
chess.  The white king starts on d1 or e1 and the black king starts on d8 or
e8, and the rooks are in their usual positions.  Bishops are always on
opposite colors.  Subject to these constraints the position of the pieces on
their first ranks is random.  Castling is done similarly to normal chess:  
o-o-o indicates long castling and o-o short castling.

Style 2:  In this variant the usual set of pieces is arranged randomly on the
first and eighth ranks, with the constraint that Black's arrangement is always
a mirror image of White's.  Castling is not allowed.

Style 3:  In this variant the set of pieces is randomly chosen (subject to the
constraint that there is one king of each color).  It is quite possible to get
more than the normal number of a given piece, such as three rooks or two
queens.  The pieces are placed on the first rank behind the pawns, the
position of Black's pieces mirrors White's placement, and castling is not
allowed.

Style 4:  In this variant a random set of pieces is generated.  These pieces
are placed randomly for White and Black behind the rank of pawns, subject to
the constraint that the bishops must be balanced.

Style 5:  In this variant, each player has the usual set of pieces.  However,
they are placed in a very unusal position.  Pawns start on their 7th rank
rather than their 2nd rank!  They are, therefore, one move away from becoming
queens.  The pieces are placed on their 8th rank rather than the 1st rank. 
When the game starts, it will look like the board is upside down, with White's
pieces starting on Black's side of the board, and vice versa.  But don't let
this fool you.

Style 8:  In this variant, the major pieces are in the normal positions but
the pawns are on their fourth rank rather than their second rank.

Style 8a:  In this variant, the major pieces are in their normal positions but
the pawns are on their fifth rank rather than their second rank.

Fischer Random -- This variant is similar to wild 2, but castling is permitted 
and startup positions follow certain guidelines.  For a description, read 
"help fr"; the rules are in "help fr_rules".

Bughouse -- Bughouse is a form of partner chess.  Please see the special help
files for it -- "help bughouse" for rules and "help bughouse_strat" for 
playing tips.

Crazyhouse -- Crazyhouse is a form of single-user bughouse.  Please see the
special help files for it -- "help crazyhouse" for rules and "help
crazyhouse_strat" for playing tips.

Suicide -- Suicide is a form of "you win if you lose" chess.  Please see the
special help file for it -- "help suicide" for rules and a few playing tips.

  In order to request a wild match with a user, you must specify which kind of
wild board you want to use.  For example, "match Solid 5 15 w3" would be for a
Wild 3 match and "match Solid 5 15 bughouse" would be for bughouse.

SPECIAL NOTES:

(a) In wild 0 and wild 1, there are special ways in which you must designate
how to castle. Use "o-o" for castling on the short side and "o-o-o" for
castling on the long side.

See Also:  boards  bughouse  bughouse_strat  crazyhouse  crazyhouse_strat
           fr  fr_rules  match  suicide

[Last modified: February 17, 1999 -- pgv]