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Ultra Slanted Escalator Chess. Game on an asymmetrical board of 84 squares with Crabs and Ultras. (10x9, Cells: 84) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
💡📝David Short wrote on Fri, Dec 6, 2002 05:09 AM UTC:
As long as I'm fishing for comments (hopefully mostly positive) on Schizophrenic Chess, let me also make the same request for feedback on ULTRA SLANTED ESCALATOR CHESS. I would like to remind potential judges of this game not to get too hung up on asking themselves which is a better implimentation of the 'interesting connectivity' of the escalator squares, this variant or its predecessor SLANTED ESCALATOR CHESS, and simply try to evaluate this game on its own merits. <p>One thing I think I should point out to readers who look at the diagram of the board and think to themselves, 'Gee, it looks like it's going to be harder to get one's own pieces to the other side of the board to mount an attack!' that THAT IS THE POINT OF THE GAME! (sorry for shouting!) The challenge is to try to navigate through the available 9 files to get to the other side of the board and launch an attack. To me the game has a similar feel to it as OMEGACHESS, with the CHAMPION-like pieces next to the rooks. <p>Other general comments: Bishops have greater mobility and range if they are fianchettoed. Knights are obviously weaker on this larger board, and while it is tempting to try to advance them out onto the board so that they can take advantage of their ability to leap the barriers, they're probably better off being used as 'stay at home' defenders. Using crabs instead of pawns was absolutely necessary as pawns would tend to get locked up with enemy pawns, but crabs have the ability to make sidesteps to adjacent files with non-capturing moves, thus they cannot be blockaded so easily. <p>I welcome comments and reaction from readers to this game.