Chess and Chip Games: games played with a Chess set and Poker chips

As mentioned in the "Starting Out" section of my recommendations for game resources, one can maximize diversity of game playing options with a minimum of money by getting a pencil and paper, playing cards, dice and cups, a Chess set, and Poker chips.  Concerning the Chess set and Poker chips in combination, a few games were recommended.  This page expands those recommendations.  It is not meant to be exhaustive, but rather a place to collect my recommendations and links to relevant online resources.  Feel free to recommend others to me as well! 

• Chess set alone - Chess has a rich history and allows great depth of study, but there are also many Chess variations and puzzles that can be played with a standard set.
  • Chess websites: Chess.com, ChessGames.com, FIDE, USCF
  • Books: Chess for Juniors: A Complete Guide for the Beginner,  The Game of Chess (Algebraic Edition) by Siegbert Tarrasch
  • Wholesale Chess - an excellent online store for chess supplies.  There are many bad, cheap plastic chess/checker sets in stores.  For a good budget set, look for standard board size sets with vinyl mat boards, plastic pieces, and storage bags in the Club Chess Set section.  While still relatively inexpensive, I enjoy the Tournament Chess Sets with weightier pieces.
  • Chess variants:
    • The Chess Variant Pages
    • Chess variants on Wikipedia
• Chess set with Poker chips - Beyond Poker, Poker chips may be used for a variety of games with a Chess set.
  • Poker chips may be purchased separately, or as part of a budget set.  Bargains on 11.5 gram plastic piece sets in aluminum cases can be a great value.  Generally the included cards (and sometimes dice) are very poor quality, so focus on the weight of the chips and the portability.
  • Use the Poker chips on a Chess board to play other games such as:
    • Achi - Play on a 3x3 subsection of the Chess board (e.g. columns a - c, rows 1 - 3).
    • Amazons - Originally called El Juego de las Amazonas ("The Game of the Amazons"), this is an excellent abstract territorial strategy game with very simple rules, yet lots of depth to grow in interest as one grows.  As of this writing, only a paper grid version can be easily purchased from Kadon.  However, one can play a smaller variation with a Chess set and Poker chips as follows: Use pawns for Amazon pieces and Poker chips to mark squares with arrows.  Place white pawns at A3, C1, F1, and H3 of the chessboard.  Place black pawns at A6, C8, F8, and H6.  Beyond the setup, rules follow as in the Wikipedia article.
    • Ataxx - When using Poker chips, stack contrasting color chips as with Reversi/Othello.
    • Breakthrough
    • Checkers
      • Variants:
        • Giveaway checkers: The winner is the first player to have no legal move: that is, all of whose pieces are lost or blocked.
        • Cheskers
    • Chomp - Let square a1 be the "poisoned" square of chocolate, and form an m-by-n rectangle of poker pieces for the initial setup.  Players alternate "chomping" by choosing a chip, and removing that chip and any chips in the rectangular region from that position to h8, i.e. having row and column greater than or equal to the chosen chip row and column.
      • Play Chomp online
      • Variant: Within the m-by-n rectangle, randomly distribute p peanuts represented by contrasting-colored chips.  Each player is limited to removing no more than a positive number q peanuts (as in "quit eating all the peanuts!").  The normal strategy-stealing argument for a first-player win doesn't hold when there is a peanut in the far corner and the second player response chomps q peanuts.  (Note: I can't remember if I created this variant or not.  If you find a reference to it or a specialization of it, please let me know.  Also, if you recommend a ratio of p to m*n or a value of q, I would be interested in your observations.)
  • See also Nim below.
  • Connect Four
• Dodgem
• Domineering
• Go (9x9)
  • Although Go is typically played with black and white stones, we will use dark and light chips, referring to them as “black” and “white”.  In Go, pieces are placed on the intersections of a 19x19 grid, and practice games are often played on a 9x9 grid.  Happily, the intersections at the corners of squares on the Chess board form a convenient 9x9 grid.
  • Igowin - free 9-by-9 Go software
  • Panda glGo - free Go software
  • Goproblems.com - open database of interactive Go problems
  • American Go Association
  • Go Variants, e.g. Capture Go - Capture Go is like Go, except that the winner is the first player to capture one or more opponent pieces.
• Gomoku
• Halma (8x8) - the predecessor of Chinese Checkers
  • On an 8x8 board, each player places 10 pieces (chips) in opposing corners of the board.  The starting positions (“yard”) of the pieces should be along the first four diagonals from the corner (1 in the corner, the 2 spaces orthogonally (horizontally/vertically) adjacent, the 3 spaces orthogonally adjacent to those, etc.).  
• Hasami Shogi
  • As with Go (9x9), one can play Hasami Shogi on a Chess board by playing on the 9x9 edges intersections of the 8x8 squares.
  • Rules and Variants at Chess Variants
• Hex
  • While awkward perceptually, one can play 8x8 Hex with two contrasting-color Poker chips on a Chess board by (1) having opposing players seek to connect north-south edges and east-west edges, respectively, and (2) having adjacency defined as horizontal adjacency, vertical adjacency, and diagonal adjacency for one diagonal (e.g. b1 is adjacent to a2, but a1 is not adjacent to b2).
  • Hex Variants, e.g. Chameleon Hex - Players seek to connect opposite board edges, but may play pieces of either color and make the connection through a chain of single color pieces of either color.
• Hey! That's My Fish! variants:
  • Mr. Pauper's Penguins - This presentation compares Amazons and Hey! That's My Fish! , and introduces my variation, Amazon Penguins, combining the two.  The "Mr. Pauper's Penguins" slide describes how one can play the excellent game Hey! That's My Fish! using Poker chips and small game tokens.
  • If playing with two colors of chips on a chess board, one can work the setup as follows:
    • Players decide the starting player.  Beginning with the starting player, players create the ice floe by taking turns placing 21 chips of one color (e.g. red) on the chess board.  Each of these chips represents a section of the ice floe containing 2 fish.
    • Chips of a second color (e.g. blue) are placed in the remaining empty spaces on the chess board.  Each of these chips represents a section of the ice of the ice floe containing 1 fish.
    • Beginning with the non-starting player, players take turns placing one of 4 penguins (pawns) each on top of the chips.  The starting player uses black pawns.
• Knights Tour puzzles - Place chips in a pattern on the Chess board (e.g. whole board, 5-by-6 subgrid, etc.), place the Knight on a chip, and see if it's possible to visit every chip using Knight moves.  Remove each chip from the board as you visit it with the Knight. 
• Lights Out puzzles:
  • Select a section of the Chess board (e.g. rectangular subgrid) and cover it with Reversi/Othello-type piece stacks with the dark color chip on top of the light color chip.  Select a switching rule, for example:
    • When selected, a piece and all pieces orthogonally (horizontally and vertically) adjacent are switched.
    • When selected, a piece and all pieces orthogonally (horizontally and vertically) and diagonally adjacent are switched.
    • When selected, a piece and all pieces in the same row or column are switched.
  • One player creates the puzzle by selecting a sequence of pieces, performing the chosen switching rule for each selection, and then announcing the number of selections.
  • The other player tries to restore the board to its original "lights out" condition by selecting a sequence of pieces, using the same chosen switching rule.  If desired, the solving player seeks to restore the board with the least number of selections, less than or equal to the number announced.
• Lines of Action
  • Dave Dyer's LOA page
  • Mark Winands' LOA applet
  • Computer Olympiad rules and references
• Magneton
• Mancala - a family of "sowing" games.  Many of these can be played on a Chess board with Poker chips by designating squares as specific "pits" and stacking chips on a square to "sow seeds" in a "pit".  While losing the tactile sowing feel of traditional Mancala games, the games are still functionally the same, and in some cases, chip stacks may make it easier to count the seeds in any given pit.
  • For example, Kalah is the most well-known Mancala game in the West.  Players sit across the Chess board from each other, with player pits at b1-g1 and b8-g8, and stores at h1 and a8, respectively.
  • The Complete Mancala Games Book by Larry Russ is an excellent survey of more than 100 Mancala games and their origins.
• Reversi/Othello - When using Poker chips, one creates a Reversi/Othello piece by stacking two chips of contrasting color in a square.  The chip on top indicates the owner of the piece.  To change ownership of a piece, flip the chip stack over.
• Poker chips alone
  • Nim, with variants including:
    •  The Subtraction Game - single heap with a limit to the maximum number of pieces (e.g. 3) that can be taken
    •  Multiple Heap Rule - like Nim, but allowing one to take from multiple heaps, so long as the same number of pieces are taken from each heap
    • Variants can sometimes be made more interesting by adding asymmetric restrictions on player actions, e.g. the peanut variant of Chomp above.
• Coin puzzles:
  • Puzzles.com
  • Sliding Coin Puzzles and Games
• Related resources:
  • Zillions of Games - a commercial general game playing program with many games listed above and free user game extensions
  • GamesCrafters games list - a good list of abstract strategy games, along with computer play and analysis
  • The New Games Treasury by Merilyn Simonds Mohr - my favorite treasury of 500+ diverse games with good illustrations and interesting historical information.  Although out of print, it is still relatively easy to purchase a used copy.
  • About.com Free 8-by-8 Board Games

Last updated October 2011

Todd Neller