Kung-Fu Chess is a chess variant that removes the concept of turns and allows multiple pieces to move simultaneously. It was created by Shizmoo Games as a "real-time" in the early 2000s and remained on the company's website until the website shut down in 2008. Other online servers have since appeared.[1] [2]
The game was conceptualized in the early 2000s by Dan Goldstein as a "real-time" version of chess; it was later developed by him and his brother Joshua Goldstein under the name "Ultra Speed Chess". The name was later changed to "Kung-Fu Chess" to reflect the martial-arts themed sound effects that would play during the players' moves.[3] The game was published by Shizmoo Games on the company's website and it won the Audience Choice award in the 2002 Independent Games Festival.[4] Following with the martial arts theme, the game also featured a rating system categorized by belt colors. It was later supplemented with additional variants (such as Four-player chess, Crazyhouse, and Bughouse chess) before the website shut down in 2008.
The original version was added to the ICQ instant messaging program in 2005.
https://kungfuchess.org/Currently, the kungfuchess website servers as a replace to the old shizmoo site, functioning very similarly to the original
The app Chezz is based on Kung-Fu Chess, adding concepts such as an adventure mode that allows for upgrading pieces to allow them to move more often.[5]
In Kung-Fu Chess, either player can move any available piece at any given moment, though only one piece can be moved at a time. After a piece is moved, a predefined delay prevents it from moving again for a short period of time. This, plus piece movements not being instantaneous, means that speed and timing are crucial aspects of the game, as any delay could determine whether a piece is captured or not.
In addition to this, the game's "real-time" aspect leads to essential differences between Kung-Fu Chess and standard chess. For instance, checks and pins do not exist in the game, since players are not bound to one move at a time and thus could respond to threats with multiple piece movements. Checkmate and stalemate were similarly both impossible to achieve; as such, the game only ended when one's king was physically captured or if one's opponent resigned.