The origin of the name and logo

Why is this game called Mystic Chess? Well it all started during the Open of Béthune, when I had the idea of creating a new game based on my two favorite board games: chess and Terra Mystica. We just acquired the latter and were having a lot of fun with it. I liked the fact that it is a "full information game", meaning there is no luck involved and all the information is visible to all players all the time, as in chess.

The logo of Terra Mystica

In this game, players develop their so-called factions by developing/upgrading buildings and changing the nature of the fields around them, a process called terraforming. This gives the name of the game Terra Mystica, with the ground changing shapes like the X-men character Mystique. The word Mystic comes from the Greek μυστικός (mustikos), which can either mean initiate or secret, the latter being also linked to the word mysterious.

I had two main possibilities to merge the two games:

- introducing the terraforming process in chess: changing black squares into light squares (and the other way around) could be interesting in terms of territory development, but it was difficult to link it to the chess pieces.

- using the upgrade idea seen in the buildings: a dwelling can be upgraded to a trade post, which can further be upgraded either to a fortress or a temple. This proves easier to implement and I went further down that path.

Now how to upgrade pieces? I wanted to keep as close as possible to chess, keeping the movement of the original chess pieces on an orthodox board. No new chess pieces with superpowers, like in many chess variants. A game that people having a normal chess set could easily implement. The concept of coins has quickly been introduced, as buildings in Terra Mystica are also built and upgraded using coins (as well as workers). Then the idea of starting from an almost empty board and drop pawns on the squares you want came from the chess variant Raindropchess, which we also enjoy a lot at home. Instead of coins, that game uses cards to decide which pieces are dropped on the board. So there we were with almost all the rules. Some quick fine-tuning on the optimal number of coins to start with and on the allowed squares to drop a pawn, and Mystic Chess was born!

Why mysticchessgame in the blog and email address? Well it is simple, the mysticchess account had already been used by a chess school.

The Mystic Chess logo has been rather simple to make: the idea of changing the nature of the chess pieces led to the implementation of mysterious chess piece, whose identity is hidden by a mask. In this case the "mask" is a tagelmust, a turban worn by the Tuareg men to protect them from the sand of the Sahara. And the background color is the same as the logo of Terra Mystica.

Mystic coins and handicap

The major difference between mystic chess and the standard chess game is that mystic chess is using coins. That is the only material that is needed to play but is not included in a standard chess set. Although the number of available coins per player can be just monitored using a piece a paper and a pen, it is much more fun to play it with real, physical coins.

The first coins I used for that were taken from another board game, called Piratoons, which happens to include exactly 40 "doubloons". Later on I have looked for coins that are bundled in a nice storage box. Bingo chips can be very cheap online, whereas poker chips are more expensive but have a cooler look. Even cooler is to have custom coins specifically designed for Mystic Chess. Ordering custom chips online (either embossed or printed) typically starts around 1000 pieces and is quite expensive. However, a friend nicely proposed to make a small batch with a 3D printer, and the results are promising.

Having more than 40 coins available allows Mystic Chess enthusiasts to play with a coin handicap. This allows players to compensate their different strengths by giving one player an advantage over the other. Typical handicaps in chess include a material handicap, which typically denature the game, and/or a time handicap, which really unbalances the dynamics of the play.

The concept of a coin handicap in Mystic Chess is simple: one player is simply given more coins to start with than the other player. I call this an off-board material advantage, in contrast to an on on-board material advantage when you have converted your coins into actual chess pieces. I started doing it with my son Paul (my other sons do not need any handicap against me...). In order to balance the game he would get more coins, and he soon asked to have all 80 remaining poker chips. This handicap method has the advantage that it does not fundamentally change the nature and dynamics of the Mystic Chess game, and it gives a very good feeling to start with 80 coins versus 20! 

Notation in Mystic Chess

As pawns can be dropped on the board and pieces can be upgraded, the notation in Mystic Chess slightly deviates from standard chess. Any moves that are specific to Mystic Chess can be identified with a @ before the square name. For instance dropping a pawn on e2 is written @e2, whereas upgrading that pawn to a bishop is written B@e2. This notation is similar to the Crazyhouse chess variant.

Here is the notation of a full game:

Mystic chess game: Simon - Guillaume, 08/01/2020

1.@d2 @d7 2.@e2 @f7 3.@f3 @e6 4.B@f3 B@e6 5.R@f3 R@e6 6.Q@f3 B@f7 7.Qa8+ Ke7 8.Qa3+ @d6 9.B@d2 Bh5 10.@f3 B@d6 11.Qc3 R@h5 12.B@f3 Rc5 13.Qg7+ Kd8 14.Bg4 Re7 15.Qh8+ Kc7 16.Qa1 Q@c5 18.Qa5+ Qxa5 19.Bxa5 Kc6 20.Bf3+ Kb5 21.Bd2 Rh7 22.R@f3 Rh1+ 23.Kf2 Rh2+ 24.Kf1 R@d6 25.B@e2+ Kb6 26.Bf4 Rh1+ 27.Kg2 Reh6 28.Bxh6 Rxh6 29.Rb3+ Kc7 30.Rc3+ Rc6 31.Rxc6+ Kxc6 32.Kg3 Kc5 33.Kf4 d5 34.Ke5 d4 35.Ke4 Kd6 36.Kxd4  1/2-1/2   

For those who cannot yet play blind Mystic Chess, here is an animated diagram of the game.

Of course this particular game is not free of blunders, but it gives an idea of how it works. Among around 10-15 Mystic Chess games played so far, this is the first one that ended in a draw. Better yet: every game so far has been unique. It is good to see this game does not suffer yet from heavy theory like the standard chess game. It often finishes in all sorts of pawn, bishop or queen endgames, which is a lot of fun. Of course, as long as one player still has a coin left, he can buy a pawn and convert the position into a winning endgame. So it is wise to keep at least a coin quite long in your stock...

Rules

"Mystic Chess" is a chess variant using an orthodox chess board with unorthodox rules.

The game differs from the standard chess game in the following rules:

• The starting position only includes the White and Black kings, at their standard positions (on e1 and e8 respectively). The remaining chess pieces are placed beside the board for further use.

• Each player starts with 20 coins, to be placed in front of him, which are used to buy pawns and upgrade pieces. In case no physical coins/tokens are available, a sheet op paper can be used to monitor the number of coins remaining for each player, which should be visible during the full duration of the game. 

Starting position, with 4 stacks of 5 coins on each side

• At his turn, a mystic chess player has the choice between 3 different actions:

1. Play a standard chess move
2. Buy one pawn with one coin. The coin should be removed from his personal stock and put aside. The pawn can be dropped in any unoccupied square between ranks 2 and 4 for White, and between ranks 5 and 7 for Black.
3. Upgrade one piece according to the standard evaluation used in chess: a Queen is worth 9 points, a rook 5 points, a bishop or a knight 3 points and a pawn 1 point. The upgrade should be done progressively, which means a pawn can only be upgraded to a bishop or knight (by paying 2 coins, as it is the difference in evaluation between the 2 pieces). Then the bishop or knight can be upgraded to a rook by paying 2 extra coins, which in the next turn can be converted into a Queen by paying 4 extra coins.

Action 2 should be performed at least 3 times before action 3 can be performed. This allows building a basic pawn structure before being attacked by the opponent's pieces. So in practice the players have to buy at least 3 pawns before upgrading them to higher pieces. After these 3 first pawns are bought, any number of pieces can be upgraded, as long as enough coins are available to pay the upgrade. There can however not be more pieces of one type than in a standard chess set. For instance, White or Black are not allowed to upgrade 3 pawns to have 3 bishops at the same time on the board. It is allowed to have two light-squared or two dark-squared bishops. 

A pawn reaching the 8th rank can be promoted  as usual to a piece (bishop, knight, rook or queen), but only as long as it is still available (so not to a queen if a queen is already on the board, for instance if bought earlier with coins). Pieces than have been captured or upgraded to a higher piece are going back to the stock of pieces available for upgrade with coins or promotion of pawns on the last rank.

As in standard chess, the winner is the player who can checkmate his opponent.