Eric experiences what we experience playing chess. The “wow, that’s checkmate!” says it all!!

Eric: I've never played a game where me or my opponent used all our freeze spells Eric two minutes later: I'm going to try and make the argument that a freeze spell is worth more than a minor piece 😂

Things I've learned about this game: 1. Don't move the d pawn. 2. Double checks are usually fatal.

5:50 When your opponent freezes to take a piece, you also have to freeze to take back a piece. You're trading freezes and pieces so to speak

Eric did what's called a "frumpmate", similar to duckmate's name origin. Frump is a combination of freeze first, then jump. There can also be a scenario called "jeezemate", you know where that comes from. Then there's the normal freezemate and jumpmate.

just realized that when the attacking player has a jump available and there are two pieces between an attacker and its target (as at 23:24) _both pieces are pinned_ (neglecting one's own spell arsenal)

At about 13:00 when you said you had a cool idea, I had the exact same up until when you said you used the wrong spell and wanted to freeze. I saw jump spell on the rook on h7 over g7 and take f7. It's defended by the other rook and the bishop covers e8 so I think that's checkmate

Someone needs to design a spell chess puzzle where the solution involves sacrificing a piece by using a jump spell to move a pawn 2 spaces and getting captured en passant.

Eric Frozen

It seems the freeze jump combo is pretty insane. If you can check the king regularly and freeze it at the same anything they use to block it can be jumped over the next move. I think you would have to do a counter freeze to stop it, and I'm pretty sure its a forced win if you do this when their freeze is recharging

Actually at the beginning I thought 'oh no, not another stupid variant' but towards the end of the video I actually not only started to appreciate the variant itself but also - and this is especially true of the Jump Charm - how playing this variant aid you in playing chess. This is indeed mind-boggling

26:24 Nf3 instead Bxd5 with Nxh2

A player can jump through a piece the opponent charmed. this means he can also charm an additional one and jump through 2 pieces in a move, it just happened to me in a game.

I appreciated that you posted this content where you are already familiar with the mode, so we can see some impressive plays.

Eric we love you from baghdad iraq❤

13:44 Rook jump from h7 to f7 should be winning

There's stalemate in spell chess if you have no moves (this can happen if all of your pieces are frozen by your opponent).

I've been getting into spell chess, really enjoying it! I'm learning some trappy openings and I feel like I have some basic tactical awareness as well. (Also just broke into the top 1000 as well, something I don't think I can do in real chess...)

Grudge match: Eric vs Levy. Five minute spell chess. Make it happen!

19:50 Good callout by Eric, admitting he got "oh no my queen" happen to him this time

2:08 using a freeze like this is very dangerous. I think white wins after Nb5, threatening various freeze mates, since you can't counter freeze. Probably the best move for black is Qa5+, saccing the queen to get the freeze back and avoid mate. The only other try I see is Kd7, which loses in spectacular fashion: freeze@e6&Ne5+ jump@f6&Bxe5 dxe5 Ke8 Nd6+ freeze@f5&exd6 freeze@c7&Bb5, white wins the queen and blacks king is still in danger

I think the king is safer in the center because there are many pieces in the center so opponent won't really be able to jump. When castling it it has only pawns in front which could be jumped over, I think?

new to this variant but at 13:12 I believe Eric can win by playing Qa4+. king has to move since the queen can jump over any blocking piece, so Kf8 which loses to Rxf7 defended via jump by the h7 rook

Here's an idea, Eric. You know a lot of strong players who are also entertaining on camera. You could get together 8 or 12 of them for a chess decathlon (or appropriate -athon depending on how many variants), where pairings cycle through different chess variants like bughouse, 960, duck chess, king of the kill, horde, kung fu, etc. and get points for wins, draws, and maybe bonuses for certain events/quacktics/etc. I would buy tickets to watch that!

Wow, so many fascinating combinations in this video!

Just had my first few games. Beagn developing some opening theory around it and learning a few tactics around the spells. In the majority of cases so far I've found its generally best no to be the first to freeze. Due to counter freezing tactics. I am hoping to figure out some possible instances where this isn't the case soon.

I really like the jumping mechanic. Reminds me of the cannon in Chinese chess

It is good to be careful when using your freeze, because if you use it, any check could be deadly.

Some strange things that one doesn't realize: you don't have to jump over your jump -- you can use it to just create a check situation.

A wild ride of emotions at 19:28 😂

wow that last checkmate was genius !!

Bro the checkmate with the freeze idea was insane

More spell chess please, love it!

It would be nice if you could activate the abilities by a keybind like pressing 1 or 2 for jump or freeze instead of needing to click it with the mouse.

when you play with aiden he takes your knight and you decide to dodge with the king, and aiden retreats, but he could have used to jump to take your rook on a1. i think thats a lot of material lost unless you have an attack, which you didnt at the time - had nothing developped yet.

To disable CoC theme, go to boards setting and disable 'Enable Special Themes' option.

You can't simply win material with a freeze. Always remember they can counter it. And also remember it when they froze you first, there's always a counter.

19:35 Nxe4 is a nice move but its probably better to play e5 or Nh5 with the same idea (Bg4# or Nf4#) so white doesn't lose a piece ìn case you don't take on h1

Excited for the Wizard-Eric thumbnail

I’m loving the spell chess content

I've found a bug or a feature, idk. When you apply jump onto a cell, opponent can overpass this cell as well. I had two pieces in front of my king, put a jump on one of the pieces and the opponent put jump on the other piece as well on their turn an jumped over two pieces and took my king

Couldn't he just have used jump on the g7 pawn to jump over and checkmate with the rook on h7? Sorry if I am making a mistake in advance.

We should coin the term freezwang - zugzwang from freeze, where one freezes all the active pieces so that the opponent have to make a bad move with the remaining pieces!

more please!

I love these kinds of variants. A ladder that randomly swapped between Duck chess and Spell chess would be a lot of fun

At 6:26 the bishop was hanging, you could’ve jumped over your pawn with your king and took.

Itd be cool to add a third spell that lets any piece move like a king for a turn Turn your white bishop into a black one, or quickly adjust your knights

13:43, missed literal mate in one jumping the g7 square.

Spell chess seemed really fun. Would like too a learning arc on it!

This variant is so fun to watch but also really frustrating to watch lol

17:54 This match puts Eric on a roller coaster!

I noticed that double capture thing too lol

Don't tell Jonathan Schrantz that this is chess with spells, he's adamant that this is not chess, so that he can play it ;)

4:55 I think opponent had freeze the queen and set up a double attack on her with Qd2. Even if we freeze their rook, we can't defend our queen from theirs.

seems like checking is much stronger in this, bc blocking with a piece is bad... so the king has to move

Would be interesting if Freeze froze in time as well as space, i.e. nothing could move into or out of the frozen area, Jump spells could not be cast on any frozen pieces, etc.

I hope it goes on youtube

26:20 nice one!

Hey Eric, I came across a weird stalemate in a game - by opponent had all their pieces in a 3x3 square and I was down in material. Turns out, if you can freeze all your opponents pieces in one spell, it's stalemate because they can't make a move!

So fun to watch

I love the aesthetics of the pieces of thia mode, too bad we cant use them on normal chess

the only way to use your own theme with spell chess is to set up a custom game and apply the spell chess rule to your game.

6:38, I think you hung a rook to a bishop Jump spell there.

On the last position, the white King may jump over a Rook

Eric, do more spell chess please!

16:00 gxxf3 is so funny

Poison spell: a 3x3 area in which any peice dies in........... uhh how do you balance this... 5 turns? So if you manage to hit the golden 9 peices thats 4 guarenteed dead. Actully how often do you see 9 of the opposing players peices all in one place? Make it dies in 4 turns. The spell itself lasts 6 turns. Recall spell: a 1 tile spell that lets you take any of your own peices, and recall it to any of your first three ranks (pawns are not allowed on your first rank) Haste spell: also 1 tile, lasts for 3 turns, allows for limited range peices to move an additional space in any of their directions when moving from or through the haste tile. (Pawns can move 2 or 3 if they havent moved), (kings can move 2 spaces and direction), (heres the tricky one, Knights can only move 1 additional tile in either direction, not both, depending on where the haste tile is. If the knight starts on the haste tile, it can move 3 in one direction, 1 in another, so a long L. If the haste tile is a traditional knighrs move away, the knight now has the option to move two tiles in oen direction, and 2 tiles in another. It would make more sense with visuals). All other peices remain unchanged since they already move infinitely. Skeleton spell: spawn a pawn. Thats it. Spawn a pawn in any of your first 5 ranks, minus the first rank again. Those are all of my ideas

26:45 is not a checkmate, opponent king can use jump potion to jump over the rook to e1. EDIT: King can't jump over the rook. King still only can move 1 square. Jump potion only works for pieces that can move longer distances (queen, bishop, rook, probably also pawns in the default position).

I really wish the time control was longer because most of the games ended in flagging. The ones that didnt were really cool though

I happened to get randomly paired against Benjamin Bok in spell chess. I got demolished lol.

At the end the opponent could jump ver his pions I think

In the final position in the video I think the opponent could have jumped their king to e6 to avoid immediate mate

thank you for more spell chess! MORE spell chess?

More spell chess!!

At 6:36, the opponent could have traded a Bishop for a Rook by jumping the b pawn

When i was a kid and my father taught me how to play chess i used to be very upset when loosing so i came up with the idea of "special potion" which would let my king escape when needed. I am glad i was like 20 years ahead. And i still can't play the game.

what happens if its your turn to move but all your pieces are frozen? stalemate? If so - can you just stalemate yourself by freezing yourself in a lost position??

There's stalemate in spell chess too and it's draw. And if you freeze all of the opponent's movable pieces it will be a stalemate. But you can't freeze your own pieces to make stalemate.

At the end, could the king jump over the rook, effectively moving two squares?

At 13:45, jumping the rook on h7 to f7 looks like a viable idea, talk about fancy

15:20 eric what it u just jump over the g7 pawn with the h7 rook isnt it mate ?

Eric: "This game is so mind bending." Me: that's how I feel about normal chess 😢

6:16 I think freezing the Bishop was correct.

More spell chess!

Great games!

Suggestion: make a wizard Eric thumbnail if there's another spell chess video. I recommend Big Hat Wizard Eric or Pondering-Orb Wizard Eric.

MORE SPELL CHESS I NEED IT IN MY VEINS

At a certain skill level I'd think that freezes become mostly useless because the opponent will always counter freeze the same area. The only time a freeze would be helpful is to delay a check

6:37 free rook. 11:26 free knight. 11:55 knight and two rooks for a queen though?

the last trick didn't work because your opponent can freeze your queen and get his knight back and after Rh8 he will take the queen with the knight but he missed it

14:51 If you played jump on g7 and took on f7 with the h rook instead, it would be instant mate...

26:35 jump@f1 and ke1

Spell chess looks fun!

I played this and got to a rook endgame where my opponent had a jump, and I didn't have any spells, and it wouldn't let me take his rook with my pawn on the back rank! Opponent said he thinks there's no promotion in spell chess?? Which if so, is really silly, and I don't see why that'd be the case. but it wouldn't let me move my pawn to the back rank, so either it was a glitch, or there's no promotion.

you can cancel a spell if misplaced

In the last game, white king can jump over the rook and un-castle. Lol. that's why there's no checkmate sound.

when thinking what to do with the rooks against aiden on the last move before you flagged, wasnt just R jump but the other one, from H file over to f7 where its protected by the rook on A file, then its a mate in one isnt it?

At 25:05 Eric said his only move was Kg8 to avoid checkmate but he could've used jump Kh6. Riiiiight?

The Queensac at 26:20 doesn't work because of counter freeze and Nf3 then after Rh8 Nxh2 wins.

In that last game could the opponent’s king have hopped over his rook to escape?