Recycle Chess is a chess variant of the loop category, created by Robert Huber in 2000-ish. It means that some pieces which have been removed from the board can be brought back to the game and reused. There is a similarity with Loop Chess, but the game strategy is entirely different:
- A player can capture his own pieces (except the king) and place them back on the board in the following moves. There is the same restriction as for Loop Chess – a pawn cannot be placed in the first or last rank. For example, the white player can start the game capturing his own queen by the king and place the queen to any blank square in the next move.
- A player can, just like in normal Chess, capture the opponent’s pieces, but such pieces cannot be reused at all.
- A pawn that reaches the last rank is not promoted to another piece, but it is removed from the game board.
Since I didn’t include this specific variant in my video generator, I want to employ diagrams and comments as alternative methods to examine a brief sample game that took place on BrainKing.com back in 2014.
1. e4 ♛xc8 (Many players are tempted to capture their own pieces from the very start, but White decided to make a simple move with the pawn. On the other hand, Black captured the black bishop, which is now ready to be placed on the board in the following moves.
2. ♗xb2 ♛xb7 (Both players continue eating through their own ranks. The strategy is simple – the more extra pieces they prepare in advance, the more sudden strikes they can make later.)
3. ♕xc2 ♜xb8 (The trend goes on. Besides, White covered the e-pawn with the queen, while Black increased the pressure over the b-file, and threatened to capture the bishop at b2.)
4. ♙@b3 ♞@b4 (The recycle phase started! White placed a pawn at b3 to block the b-file and protect the bishop, Black made an attack placement to endanger the queen by the knight.)
5. ♕c4 ♝@a6 6. ♕xb3 ♛xe4+ (Two more moves were played. It seems that Black took over the initiative.)
7. ♙@e3 ♞c2+! (A discovered attack on the queen. Black’s got one step closer to the victory.)
8. ♔xf2 ♜xb3 9. axb3 ♝xf1 (Another two moves and the game is over. Black has an extra queen to place to e1 in the next move to deliver a checkmate. Since White has only two extra pawns that cannot be placed to the first rank to block this threat, they resigned.)