They're going to tell me to google something. I can feel it.

OK, I looked it up on Wikipedia. The bishop and queen were the last to have their moves set changed to the modern form in the 15th or 16th century. But even since then there have been some tweaks, such as the 3 move and 50 move rules for draws, and the orientation of the board. So you could maybe argue no balancing since the 16th century, and only a few bug fixes after that.

Castle was put in place around the 17th century, and en passant wasn't put into the rules until 1880. Both were balance issues being solved.

Possible quick fix: Switch from turn-based to real time mode

Castling itself (as a single move) is a 17th century balance update. Before that it was done as separate moves. But the only reason castling became a thing was because the Queen and Bishop were buffed in the 15th century allowing them to threaten more spaces. This made it more advantageous to fortify the king’s position than to have him flee.

O-O-O-O-O-O#

Jesus christ, lol

Google ~~en passant~~ vertical castling

Funny story time:

I had someone cheat against me the other day (without me realizing it, because I don't have the game sense to tell), then offer a draw in a clearly winning position. I guess they were trying to avoid detection, but I decided that I didn't want their handout, declined the draw offer, and resigned.

The system immediately flagged them as cheating and refunded my elo, so I guess all's well that ends well.

I bet a bot can beat you at Counter Strike too if we made them as strong as possible like chess bots.

Also castling and en Passant

You are quite correct that an asymetrical game is much harder to balance.

However having identical sides and a symmetric playing field doesn't always guarantee a balanced game. For example, if one piece or position dominates all others it can lead to a lack of viable options and just one way to play, making the game uninteresting. You don't just want the players to have equal strength, you also want the universe of possible playing strategies to contain many different strong options.

Actually it has had balance changes. Chess clock for instance is a balance update between the players, but there's also been balancing between pieces. En passant and castling but also changing how the pieces work (for example bishop).

Despite the obvious symmetry of the game there's still a lot to balance.

It's ok, we're two steps past them now. I think we're safe.

Eh. My last move was to tie a ballistic missile to a pawn and roll it down a pinball machine. Their move is to keep it from hitting the bottom and exploding. That would keep them occupied for a while.

Nah, staring position is zugzwang, black gets to capitalise on whites blunder in the opening.

She's such a Mary Sue.

Rocket League is also like chess. Basically the same, just different.