I have been playing chess more or less regularly for 17 years now. I never was very good at it, and I’m not hoping to be; the game is interesting enough nevertheless, luckily.
I sometimes dreamed of a game that has strategic ideas similar to those in chess – with a random element added. This seemed to undermine chess to an extent, so I never tried to design new rules even for my own amusement.
Last year I happened to watch a Quantum Chess video on Chess24. On the video, International Master Anna Rudolf plays against the creator of Quantum Chess, Chris Cantwell. After watching for about 10 minutes I knew this was a game I needed to have as soon as possible. It turned out to be still in development. I joined the backers.
In Quantum Chess, there’s a special move called “quantum move” which makes it possible for a piece to be on two squares at the same time – with a 50% chance of being on either of them. Make more quantum moves with the same piece, and you change the percentage. If nothing else happens to mess up the equation, after a second quantum move the chances are 33.333…% that the piece is on any of the three squares it seems to be – and so forth. The fun starts when one of the players tries to take a quantum-moved piece or to take another piece with one that’s been quantum-moved.
Complicated? Yes. Fun? Hell yes. All of the above is just the beginning. Whenever other pieces interact with pieces that have made quantum moves, everything gets more shady. Luck plays a part, skill plays a part. I recommend the game without reserve.
What does this have to do with art? This: the game is so inspirational that I painted a few watercolours that depict quantum chess phenomena through surrealistic imagination. I attempted to turn my feeling of the game into something others could enjoy. I will be painting more of these.