Talk:Capablanca chess

Knighted Chess or Capablanca Chess?

While it has sometimes been called “Knighted Chess”, most people interested in Chess Variants call this variant “Capablanca Chess”, where Seirawan Chess, Grand Chess, and all of the various 8x10 setups proposed over the years are considered Capablanca variants. I never heard the term “Knighted Chess” before this article was moved there, and I think it makes much more sense to call it “Capablanca Chess” as per WP:COMMONNAME

Also, I think the article gave Gothic Chess (Trice’s chess?) too much undue weight, so have removed some unverified claims about Gothic Chess and made the top picture a picture of Capablanca instead of Trice playing a Capablanca chess variant.

(My own extensive computer analysis shows that, at perfect play, Capablanca Chess is probably a win for White, but, with a carefully chosen opening setup, in real world high level play Black wins slightly more games per White win than in Classic Chess, and also that Capablanca Chess is a lot less drawish than Classic Chess)

Samboy (talk) 22:10, 31 January 2026 (UTC)

Princess/Empress or Archbishop/Chancellor

Capablanca called the Knight + Bishop piece an “Archbishop” (not “Princess”, which is a term mainly used in Chess Fairy problems) and the Knight + Rook piece a “Chancellor” (and not “Empress”, which again is a term mainly used in Chess Fairy problems). Online forums and Chess Variant engines which support Capablanca chess for play have adopted these terms or other terms, e.g.:

• https://archive.ph/20260122130326/https://brainking.com/en/GameRules?tp=41 Cardinal for Knight + Bishop, Marshall for Rook + Knight
• https://www.chessvariants.com/large.dir/capablanca.html Archbishop for Knight + Bishop, Chancellor for Rook + Knight
• https://mindsports.nl/index.php/how-i-invented-games-and-why-not/chess-variants-are-easy Cardinal for Knight + Bishop, Marshall for Rook + Knight
• https://archive.ph/20030711200636/http://gothicchess.org/long_answer.html Archbishop for Knight + Bishop, Chancellor for Rook + Knight
• https://github.com/fairy-stockfish/Fairy-Stockfish/blob/master/src/piece.cpp Fairy Stockfish uses Archbishop for Knight + Bishop, Chancellor for Rook + Knight (lines 202 and 203)

Point being, these pieces are only called “Empress”/“Princess” in Fairy Chess literature, and most people who use them in actual games either go with Capablanca’s Archbishop/Chancellor naming, or Freeling’s Cardinal/Marshal(l) naming. Samboy (talk) 17:01, 18 February 2026 (UTC)

I have reverted the edit. If editors feel its better to use names only used in Fairy Chess problems in this article about the actual game, please let me and other editors know. Samboy (talk) 01:42, 25 February 2026 (UTC)

The WP:COMMONNAME is “Capablanca chess” (or is it “Capablanca Chess”)

There are multiple web pages and fairy chess game engines out there which link to the Wiki page for “Capablanca Chess”, and they expect to have a discussion about Capablanca Chess, mainly to 10x8 game but also its relatives (8x8 Neo-Chess, 8x8 Seirawan Chess, Sibahi’s attempts at an 8x8 board, probably Almost Chess, 10x10 Grand Chess, 10x10 Opulent Chess, etc.).

I will give links linking to the name “Capablanca Chess”:

• https://fairy-stockfish.github.io/variants/
• http://mrraow.com/index.php/aiai-home/ Download the Java Program, and its preset for Capablanca Chess links to Capablanca Chess (and not Knighted chess, which appears to be a neologism after a century of calling it “Capablanca Chess”)

That in mind, I’ve undone the redirect, which was done without discussion. Samboy (talk) 01:49, 15 April 2026 (UTC)