In the game of SnowChess, your goal is to use the received ("gift") and existing pieces on the board to achieve victory, where "gifts" introduce an element of randomness into each player's strategy. SnowFall determines the probability of receiving a "gift", ranging from 10% to 24%, where 10% is the minimum probability and 24% is the maximum.
In Snow chess Version 3.0 it works this way: If probability of receiving gift is about 17% You can imagine it as If You have 2 cubes with 6 sides numbered (1,2,3,4,5,6) and You throw this 2 cubes after every player's move, the most often 7 points together is sum, the points throwed by the cubes are collected into gift box. You can see it in the picture as the gift pack gradually fills up. Also (added in version 3.1), if in my previous move I took a piece, one cube I throw (i.e. numbers 1..6, on average 3.5) and this is also collected into gift box. Before the start of the game, the package is filled randomly, so sometimes it can be almost full and sometimes completely empty. When is reached 40 points (in versions older than 3.1 was 35), then generator randomly select some pieces coming from following snow fall chess gift table.
A random number 0..199 is generated.
Imagine it's like drawing one card blind from a 200-card deck or like rolling three dice, with the number of hundreds (0-1) on the first, tens (0-9) on the second, and ones (0-9) on the third.
This number will determine the gift that both players will receive. Examples of numbers: 0 is Pp, 73 is Pp, 74 is Bb, 75 is Nn, 199 is qBP, 147 is Nn.
Both white and black will get pieces in gift into hand and can drop it instead of any regular move on any empty square where normally can appear (so for pawns are limits 2. to 7. rank).
The gift can never be such that any player has more than two sets of classic chess pieces in play (on the board plus in hand),
i.e. more than 2 queens, 4 knights, 4 bishops, 4 rooks, 16 pawns).
If a randomly drawn gift does not meet the condition, the nearest suitable one is selected.
Its realized by choosing a random direction (up or down) and then selecting the first combination (every item in table consist from combination of white (RNBQP) and black (rnbqp) pieces) from the gift table in that direction that satisfies the condition of the number of pieces in play for both players.
Promoted pieces count as pawns.
Thus, hypothetically, it is possible to achieve a situation where one player already has all the pieces in play
and therefore nothing is given to the players in that situation.
Of course, if a player had all the pieces of a type in play and loses one of them,
it is possible that the next time a random gift is generated, he will regain that type.
In this version, it cannot happen that player gets a gift and his opponent gets nothing.
On the contrary, it's a more realistic simulation of bughouse chess, approaching the assumption that a teammate manages to ideally exchange his material (that is, what the player takes from the opponent plus what his partner started with) for the opponent's at a similar cost until the last moment.
The following useful tables show what can happen when the gift box is full and it's time to open it ...
The first one (See Density) shows the density/frequency of how often which type of piece falls as a gift.
The second (See Probability) shows how likely it is that at least one piece of that type will be generated.
For version 3.1:
For version 3.0:
These SnowFall probabilities can be viewed in the chat for each individual SnowFallChess game, a probability is randomly selected within the range of 10 to 24. But more often 17 or arround than other values is randomly selected.
In general, one should understand that expecting a specific piece on the next move is quite a hopeless endeavor...
Also, hoping that the opponent will not get any pieces at all in the next few consecutive moves is not a good risk to take.
The rest depends on the position, the player's style, and the degree of chance vs risk one is willing to take.
One can imagine attempts to play a completely safe positional style
as well as surprising tactical maneuvers leading to situations that are not easy to navigate.
Unpredictable, amazing, breathtaking combinations as well as a gradual approach to the perfect harmonious arrangement of pieces.
What's it gonna be in the next game ? Luck vs bad luck or probability vs statistics?
Remember: Chance favors the prepared when new pieces coming!
Exercise, train, stretch, develop your mind and have fun while doing it !
Share your experiences with other people!
video with snow fall chess variant (v.3) example games on Onlinea Youtube channel.
Document version 3.102 © ONLINEA.eu team