Way of the Knight

Way of the Knight (WOTN) is a chess variant invented by Ralph Betza before 1994. It was an attempt to create a chess variant which had attributes of both standard chess and role-playing games.

Way of the Knight has the same starting position as standard chess. However, pieces may have experience levels and alignments, shown in this table. Some pieces' names have been slightly changed here to conform to Betza's later "funny notation" for fairy chess pieces.

A piece can increase its experience level ("improve") by one by:

When a piece of experience level 1, 5, or 7 improves, it must choose the Knight Alignment or Bishop Alignment. A piece on level 2 or 3 which improves must continue with the alignment it has.

The standard chess pieces move as they do in standard chess. The movements of the other pieces are given in the diagrams below.

The rules of standard chess apply to a player with only one king. Check does not apply to a player with more than one king, even when all of his kings are under attack. In such cases, some of his kings may be captured by the opponent without causing him to lose, as long as he has at least one king left in the end. A player with one king who has one or more ravens may improve a raven to a king instead of dealing with the check if that improvement would be legal.

A variation of the game, also invented by Ralph Betza, adds more pieces as possible promotions. In addition, a piece which improves from the knight alignment or bishop alignment may now either continue with the alignment it has or change to the neutral alignment. A piece which improves from the neutral alignment may choose any alignment.

The movements of the additional pieces are as follows:

Sam Trenholme suggested a system of progressive odds for Way of the Knight. In a long series of games of Way of the Knight between two players, each time a player wins a game, he gains a handicap point (or the other player loses a handicap point if they already have one). Each handicap point allows a player to improve any one of his own pieces in the starting position before the game starts. If a player has multiple handicap points, he may repeatedly improve the same piece or improve different pieces. A rook that has been improved may still be castled with.

The rule that a piece capturing another piece considerably less experienced than itself does not improve was taken in an adapted form from role-playing games. Betza planned the promotion sequence such that a minor piece would not improve by capturing a pawn and anything worth an archbishop or more would not improve by capturing a minor piece. Exchanging pieces is discouraged by the promotion-by-capture rule, as the player who starts a sequence of captures and recaptures is the one who loses from the exchange.

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