At the core of my interest in board games lies my love of abstract strategy games.
That love really started sometime around Grade 7 when I was introduced to chess. Through the three years at Centennial Junior High School in Tisdale there was a fairly active group of players, the library spotted with boards over lunch hour, especially in the winter months.
Certainly, I had played my share of checkers against Dad, and more against my Grandpa, winning on the rarest of occasions as I recall, but chess against my contemporaries really set my interest. I like the one-on-one challenge, free of the vague twists of dice rolls and card draws abstract strategy games afford.
Of course regular readers will be aware of my leaning toward such games.
So it is easy for me to gravitate to chess variant games.
There are literally hundreds, most ultra-complex, or with pieces so obtuse they appeal to only the most dedicated of variant fans.
But, there are also some gems out there. Which exactly will vary on who is being asked of course? My list is probably not typical in the sense I often do not tread the road most travelled in terms of my interests. The list would include Omega Chess, which has a lovely commercial set, Spartan Chess, with its differing piece array for each player, Odin’s Chess with some intriguing alternate pieces, and Grand Chess.
Grand Chess is by Dutch game designer Christian Freeling.
The variant has become widely respected in the chess world.
Developed in 1984, the game enlarges the familiar board of western chess to 10 X 10.
The larger boards allows for the additions of two compound pieces, which have been used in a variety of chess variants over the years. They are the Marshall which has the combined moves of Rook and Knight, and the Cardinal having the combined moves of Bishop and Knight.
The additional pieces add some definite firepower to the piece array which also includes the regular pieces from chess, with of course to additional pawns.
The pawns are given an expanded rule set in Grand Chess too.
A pawn may promote on reaching the 8th or 9th rank.
A pawn must promote on reaching the 10th rank.
A pawn can promote only to a friendly piece that has been captured, and for which it is exchanged.
If no friendly piece has been captured, then a Pawn may not move beyond the 9th rank.
As for the added pieces; the Marshall sets up directly right of the Queen, with the Marshall yet another space to the right. This set up does shift the power a bit to the right side of a players array, but that may not be so unlike an army line when you think about.
The next thing Freeling did, and I believe this is where his game design shines through, is to move the pieces forward one space, or more correctly the pieces are set apart as if still on a board eights ranks deep.
The row closest a player is then empty of pieces, or would be except that Freeling pulled the rooks into the corner spaces of the 10 X 10, mimicking their position in regular chess.
What this simple design element does it give a player the ability to develop the rooks into attack. Normally rooks tend to join the fray at best in mid game, but here they can be brought to bear much earlier.
While the Marshall and Cardinal will be seen by many, at least on a first look, as the interesting element in Grand Chess, I believe the ability to utilize the rooks more quickly, is what sets this game apart.
As note earlier there are a number of other chess variants using the combinational pieces, Gothic Chess and Capablanca Chess, the latter named after chess master and world champion Jose Raul Capablanca (1888-1942), so in that regard Grand Chess is not startlingly new.
The array, though, thanks to the 10 X 10 board and intriguing rook placement does put Grand Chess a step or two higher on the ladder in terms of variants using the aforementioned combinational pieces.
Give Grand Chess a try. It is a dynamic experience to be sure.
