Check out Balbo's Chess, our featured variant for October, 2024.

This page is written by the game's inventor, Andy Kurnia.


Flee!

a Large Variant 99 Contest entry by Andy Kurnia

Over the years, chess has successfully remained an entertaining game for all ages. Needless to say, it is more than just a game. It is a game of skill that requires deep thoughts for a player to be able to win his opponent's royal piece while defending his own. This could be why many plays it: it models pride; or rather, dignity, in the sense that one would defend it as long as possible.

Chess has so many variants. The term chess by itself, depending on the context, always refers to a specific variant, which is generally one of orthodox chess, Chinese Chess, or Japanese Chess.

Many of the variants keep the general theme, that is, to include a royal piece to be won. However, many of these limit the movement of the royal piece to at most eight squares per move.

This variant is an attempt to demonstrate that a chess game with a stronger royal piece, given the right circumstances, can still be enjoyable. This piece will try to keep fleeing from enemy attacks, but should eventually fail. [Author's note: Game has not been tested. Keep me posted... ]

Board

A 16x16 board is used. It should be possible to grab four standard chess boards and align them to simulate this big board.

Setup