@@HolbrookStark the duck should be able only to move diagonally, horizontally or like a horsey - duckey - that would make it the most flexible piece and still shared an invincible :) i also wanted to capture it anytime :)
@@lucasmatsuoca Yeah knights are way better in this mode especially on defense, since the duck can't undermine their control of squares. Rooks are actually super nerfed too because they typically utilize long line-of-sight to coordinate with other pieces. Interception duck tactics seem ultra frequent.
I wonder if duck chess would be more balanced if the duck became available only on black's first move. So white gets the first move but black gets first duck.
Makes super sense, if we assume white has the advantage of the first move, black can then start blocking white's best moves and maybe force an opening.
This is exactly what I was thinking. We know white has an insignificant advantage in normal chess since they have the first turn but I think their advantage in duck desk is more significant since they can do their regular opening with no restriction and completely deny black from doing their regular opening. My idea was that black starts the game by moving the duck and then white can start as normal but your idea could work too. I prefer my idea though as giving black the first full turn can flip the game in their favor whereas allowing black to position the duck at the start means that both sides are restricted by the duck equally.
@@connorObye Having it start with a half-turn/a duck-only turn for black makes sense. I think I like OP's version slightly better though because then each side gets precisely one unhampered move before the duck starts blocking things, which I feel like would enhance development effectiveness for the game & make things a little more interesting early on in terms of both available moves & available creative duck spots. Plus narratively I just kinda like the duck starting at some point after regular moves begin instead of being there up front, because then it's like a normal chess game began & then some omnipotent duck just wandered onto the battlefield & everyone suddenly found themselves simply accommodating it ... like that one story of whichever president's cat lying sprawled in the middle of a hallway & a bunch of diplomats & leaders there for dinner found themselves politely inclining heads to the cat & stepping to either side of it haha. Lol something about the duck arriving after a normal chess move feels poetically perfect that way
This has got to be my favorite chess variant. it's so simple, yet it completely alters the game while still being fair. such an interesting mutation on normal chess.
@@danielyuan9862 That wouldn't change much, since white can still play almost any opening since there is nothing to respond to before white moves. White should just be unable to place the duck on their first move so black can respond with their first move to white's opening before white can block
@@Sinzari That may be so, but not all openings are created equal. While I do agree that 1. e4 and 2. d4 openings tend to devolve into similar blockfests by the virtue of de6/dd6 and ...dd3/...de3, in my (admittedly very modest) experience with duck chess, the side that can successfully develop at least one of its Bishops 3+ squares from its starting position is going to end up with a sizeable advantage. Therefore, I don't see putting the duck on the board from White's 2nd move onwards as a good idea balance-wise. Now, if we're talking about doing it from the *3rd* move onwards, that might lead to more diverse openings and more open games in general, as both sides would have equal chances to develop at least one Bishop to an important non-long diagonal. Or maybe it would be best if *Black* would put the duck on the board initially, either on the 1st move or on the 2nd? That way, the advantage of White having the first-move advantage would be offset by having one possibility taken away.
I find Duck Chess very instructive. 1. You still get to see Eric develop his pieces at a high level. 2. You also get to see Eric block the opponent's best moves.
*here from the future year 2045* Eric Rosen doesn’t know it yet but he is our Paul morphy. This truly is the beginning of duck chess literature, beautiful.
I am new to duck chess, but I feel like you can make more advantage if you use the duck to prepare an attack. For example, at 9:58 you could technically move the queen to a square that is covered by the bishop but then use the duck to block the bishop. So the opponent has to move the bishop in the next move, because the duck will move as well. I feel this changes a bit the way the pieces function. Covering certain squares might not be as valuable anymore, because you can just use the duck to block this covering to then unleash your attack, which makes the queen the most important piece since she can attack anywhere AND she doesn't have to be as careful to be captured when lining up the attack because the duck covers for her.
@@yankeery12 addicting has never been a word, and dont come at me about the dictionary bro, they'll change anything for complete mentally handicapped degenerates.
I'm not even positive how else to share this with you, Eric- I'm a simple man who watches RU-vid only, but here we go. I had an idea about a fun twist on chess that I haven't seen before and I'd love to experience it and more to watch you play and add your sensational commentary to. If it exists already, I'm obviously not aware and would love to see what I call either Zombie Chess or Double Tap Chess. It's a standard setup with the only caveat being that the pawns and/or pieces have to be taken twice (other than the king, of course). Once something is taken, it's on its second life and will reappear after the piece that captured it moves to a new square. In the event of multiple captures on the same square, the piece captured first would reappear after the second captured piece is moved. That's all I have and hopefully this gets noticed. Either way, thanks for all the entertainment through the years (so far) and I love the awesome ONMQ shirt my wife got me!
Yay, looks like he saw your comment! :) I hope he gets to playtest your idea, I think it sounds awesome! (PSA just in case: be sure not to edit your OP now or it'll remove the heart)
@@ItsAsparageese Thanks for the feedback and info! I'd absolutely love it if he had a chance to as well, of course. I was since told that Zombie Chess is a different iteration of chess and is taken as a name, but Double Tap Chess seems not to have been used. I just hope to see it in action!
Yep, its very strong, the only range for a piece to be effective is only 2 squares away usually, whereas 1-range square pieces like pawn and knight are always very effective.
This actually gives me an idea for a tournament. Idea is based on the poker game HORSE, where the game changes as play goes on. Tournament features 5 or so variants, 3 are played each round. Each player picks a variant to remove for their games thst round, no removing the same variant 2 rounds in a row
Ambient duck noises just made this 10x better and it already was good. Background sound is a straight up plus for these streams, and no one else does it!
34:10 I feel it is relevant to mention that lowering the volume of one track (i.e. the background duck video) so it doesn't drown out another (i.e. Eric talking) is actually called ducking in audio engineering.
I had just finished watching the first duck chess video, and when it ended I wished there were more. Lo and behold, this video shows up in my home page. Today is a good day.
I really like duck chess and I want to see the game database for this. I want duck chess theory. I think this interests me as a game more than normal chess does
the game really does change by a huge amount with the duck in play, especially at 41:21 whenever the duck being on the board means that you dont have to take en passant
if a move is played but the duck hasnt been moved yet, the move can actually be taken back by clicking the arrow next to the yellow duck sign on the bottom
Eric still beats everyone in a variant where basically no theory is known and everyone including himself is discovering it. His normal chess knowledge probably still does help but I think it shows how clever and quick-witted he just naturally is compared to most people
"This opening... I'm kind of just winging it" Never change, Eric. Unless you want to. Like changing your shoes for duck slippers. That's a good change. Unless you don't want to.
Underrated comment. Duckzwang accurately evokes how this variant seems to be extra good for setting traps & just generally forcing the opponent into awkward spots
We don't have a duck at the school where I teach, but an oversized, red, ceramic pawn does a nice job as an understudy. Kids that felt less skilled and less interested in standard chess have taken a liking to starting a new game on a level playing field with the kids of greater traditional chess skill and experience. Call it differentiated instruction.
This is really cool to hear! I think that may be a big part of why it's taking off so much among fans, too. It's super encouraging to watch a highly regarded champion of this game fumble through a new variant and learn theory for us all as he goes, haha. It does indeed feel like a more even playing field than chess usually is.
That awesome knight trap sequence needs a name that honors your contributions to duck chess theory! Something like "the Sir Rosen" or "the Oh No Your Knight"
the duck should be able only to move diagonally, horizontally or like a horsey - duckey - that would make it the most flexible piece and still shared an invincible :)
"There's no engine for this game" I was talking with the guy who maintains "Fairy Stockfish" which is a variant chess engine. He says that the reason duck chess and other multi move variants aren't implemented is because the alternation of moves is an assumption baked into the code of the chess engine itself. That's part of the pruning, for instance, to reduce branches of possibilities
20:40 that opening is a blunder, you could have put the bishop next to the pawn in front of their bishop and blocked their pawn and from blocking and bishop from taking. Winning a bishop, they can save the rook by moving the knight but bishop was lost
