Losing chess

Losing chess was weakly solved in 2016 by Mark Watkins as a win for White, beginning with 1.e3.

Positions when neither player can win are also draws: for example, when the only pieces remaining are bishops of opposite colors.

The origin of the game is unknown, but believed to significantly predate an early version, named take me, played in the 1870s.

Losing chess began to gain popularity in the 20th century, which was facilitated by some publications about this variant in the UK, Germany, and Italy.

Such mistakes can be made from the very first move—it is currently known that a Black win can be forced after 13 of White's 20 legal opening moves.

This main variant of losing chess was weakly solved in October 2016; White is able to force a win beginning with 1.e3.

[17][18] In the latter case, in particular, a win may require more than 60 moves, which means that it is sometimes unattainable due to the fifty-move rule.