[Townley]

My teenage niece is getting solid at chess, but I can still beat her handily. So we came up with a fun handicap the last few times we’ve played:

Every third turn, my four year old daughter gets to move for me. She doesn’t know the rules so she chooses a piece and we give her the full rundown of options where that piece can legally move. Neither of us can influence her choice, but there’s some degree of psychological play allowed for everyone’s entertainment

It’s been unexpectedly rich and fun for everyone involved:

- My daughter is slowly learning the game and likes hamming up the choice

- I exercise a different part of my brain around guarding eventualities and conservative movements

- Pure cackles of joy and glee from my niece whenever my daughter reaches for the queen

[ryannevius]

This reminds me a bit of Hand and Brain [1], another fun variant with kids. We usually switch to normal chess after a predetermined number of moves.

[1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hand_and_brain

[jarofgreen]

That's so close to a variant we once invented. There were 4 of us, 2 of us good at chess and 2 beginners. We played in teams, a good person and a beginner on each team. We took it in turns to move and you couldn't tell your partner ANYTHING.

As the good player, you had to come up with a good move for the board but also for what your partner might do next. Was fun!

[bpev]

tfw "defensive play" is actually just blocking your own pieces on purpose

[eviledamame]

I love that! A very similar situation was also the inspiration for this variant- a beginner friend and I wanted to play but make the game less serious and more funny