Chess, while an incredibly intense game for those involved, can often bore spectators to tears. Many times, with no limits on what is happening, players can take hours trying to decide the best move to make. This is usually unfeasible for any normal game and for certain Chess tournaments, is forbidden. In this case, each player generally has a certain amount of time to make a move in every turn. However, other variations of Chess do exist which also place time limits on the length of the game. All of these new variations can be quite a challenge to players, some vastly more than others.

One of the most difficult Speed Chess games which can be played is called Bullet Chess. In this game, each side has only one minute to play their entire half of the game. At the end of one minute, if neither side has won, the entire points on the board are totaled up and the player with more points in considered to be the winner. The rankings for points are generally determined by using the standard points systems for pieces, with Pawns being worth one, Knights and Bishops worth 3, Kings are generally given a rank of 4, Rooks are worth 5 points, and the Queen is worth 9. At the end of Bullet Chess, if neither side has captured the King, this system is generally used to determine which side accomplished more.

??? I've never heard of anyone counting material to determine a winner. In speed chess, whoever runs out of time first loses if there's no checkmate.

The only material counting variation I've ever heard of is "Venetian Rules", which is from a living chess game performed at a Renaissance Faire in Miami a few years ago. One of the characters kept inventing his own rules and declaring "Venetian Rules" to explain it. When he was checkmated at the end of the game, he pulled a bunch of audience members out on to the board and declared himself the winner because he had the most pieces left.

For that matter, when was the last time you saw someone think for hours about a single move in a tournament? In correspondence play, that's routine, but in an OTB tournament, I think I've only seen a player use more than an hour for a move once in my life. I don't think I've ever personally used more than 20 minutes for a move.

And I disagree with the common point count method, too. Larry Kaufman wrote an excellent article on that subject. I know it can be found on Dan Heisman's home page. He counts rook pawns as only .85 of other pawns, minor pieces generally average out to 3.25 pawns each, though knights are worth more when there are more than 5 pawns on each side, while bishops are worth more when there are less than 5 pawns each. Also, rooks do average out to 5 pawns, but they're worth less when there are too many pawns on the board. Also, the bishop pair (having both bishops) is worth half a pawn, and the queen is worth 3 minor pieces (9.75 pawns). This is all based on some pretty detailed computer analysis of strong master and grandmaster games. I think most amateur players could benefit from reading that article.

--Fromper