Niel’s Chess: A Quantum Game for Schools and the General Public

A quantum variant of chess is presented (incl. lots of puzzles), which can be played on a traditional board without using computers or other electronic devices. The rules of the game arise naturally by combining the rules of conventional chess with key quantum-physical effects such as superposition and entanglement. Niel’s Chess is recommended for ages 10 and above to everyone who wishes to play a creative game with historical roots and, at the same time, gain intuition about the foundational quantum effects that power cutting-edge quantum technologies. The game can also serve educational purposes, helping educators prepare the public, especially the younger generations, for the quantum era our society is heading toward.

Bio: Tamás Varga received his PhD in Computer Science and Applied Mathematics in 2006 from the University of Bern, Switzerland. After his Ph.D., he spent 15 years in the banking and insurance industry in various software engineering roles in financial risk management and FX derivatives IT departments. In 2018, he founded q-edu-lab.com, intending to make quantum computing and quantum cryptography more accessible to IT professionals and the general public. Currently, he is a postdoctoral researcher in Quantum Software Engineering at the Constructor Institute Schaffhausen.