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 😂

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

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

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

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.

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

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)

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.

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

Eric Frozen

26:24 Nf3 instead Bxd5 with Nxh2

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

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

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'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...)

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

Eric we love you from baghdad iraq❤

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

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

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

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?

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

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.

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!

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

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.

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

More spell chess please, love it!

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

more please!

wow that last checkmate was genius !!

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.

A wild ride of emotions at 19:28 😂

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

I noticed that double capture thing too lol

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

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.

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

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

Bro the checkmate with the freeze idea was insane

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

I’m loving the spell chess content

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

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

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?

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!

So fun to watch

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

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

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

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.

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 ;)

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.

2:49 doesnt d5 win a piece? (because the bishop cant desperado trade like in his version with b5)

Excited for the Wizard-Eric thumbnail

Eric, do more spell chess please!

Great games!

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

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.

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.

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!!

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

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).

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

thank you for more spell chess! MORE spell chess?

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

16:00 gxxf3 is so funny

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!

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??

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

26:20 nice one!

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

If this blows your mind, what would you say about games like Regicide then? Or the ancient Archon for that matter :)

More spell chess!

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

We need a way to do daily/correspondence games with variants 😂currently I think you can only do that with Chess960 - if we could do it with all variants I think the popularity of variants would skyrocket

How do you spell duck chess?

5:54 I think if you counter freeze and play lets say Be2 I think your opponent could play Qh4

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 think in the game against the NM the move to win at the end should have been the h rook jumping and taking the f7 pawn. Someone tell me if that doesn't work, but i think it should because eric was up on freezes

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.

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

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

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

16:32 i wonder if you could do capture enpassant with a jump so you capture the king to win the game .

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

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

I hope it goes on youtube

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.

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

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

26:35 jump@f1 and ke1

Spell chess looks fun!

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

6:16 I think freezing the Bishop was correct.

I know I’m a low elo but couldn’t Eric take the pawn at 13:47 with the rook on the right side and it would of been checkmate?

How jump works with horsie?