It was an interesting evening last night...<br><br>I got together with four of my best friends. One of them had just returned from Las Vegas, where he found a weird board game. It was called "Chess4." Here is what it looks like:<br><br><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK START--><a href="http://www.abstractstrategy.com/chess-4.html">www.abstractstrategy.com/chess-4.html</a><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK END--><br><br>It was really odd. You can play two on two (in teams), four on four (everyman for himself), two on one, or even one on three...any combination of multiple players larger than two (the back side of the board had a standard chess set, so if there were only two players a normal chess game could then be played). What's really strange is that moreso than the opponent in front, who is quite a distance away, you are really fighting opponents on your flanks. And if you are in teams, your partner's pieces are actually useful since you are not attacking your partner (hence, your moves are partly based on what he does). Weirder still, when you checkmate someone, you have two options (depending upon which rule you decide to use). You either checkmate him and he is out of the game leaving behind all his forces, or you checkmate him and you take over his army. Either way, his pieces (without his king) are still left on the playing surface. Very very strange and challenging, to say the least. Also, while pawns (as usual) can only advance forward, if they eat pieces to the side and manage to get to the any king's row on the side, they can then be promoted to queens (as in a normal game) even though they moved and ate their way (diagonally) to the side instead of going all the way accross. Very strange indeed. <!--EZCODE EMOTICON START :p --><img src=http://www.ezboard.com/intl/aenglish/images/emoticons/tongue.gif ALT=":p"><!--EZCODE EMOTICON END--> Oh yeah, before I forget, turns are taken in clockwise order, starting from whomever is playing white. If a person is in check on their turn, they CANNOT move out of check until it is their turn again. Thus if another player (besides the one who put the person's King in check) moves a piece in such a way that it blocks the escape area for the king that has been checked (before that person's (who's king has been checked) turn comes up again), it is possible to checkmate someone without that person even having a chance to get away. Weird huh? Oh yes, I forgot...the board is larger too. That means that long range pieces are exceptionally valuable (bishops, rooks, Queen), while knights are far less so. It was really confusing, difficult, but nevertheless quite fun (and funny at times).<br><br>I hope to try this again. It was really interesting and confusing. Hopefully I won't get too used to it though, since my regular chess skills may get messed up by it. <!--EZCODE EMOTICON START :p --><img src=http://www.ezboard.com/intl/aenglish/images/emoticons/tongue.gif ALT=":p"><!--EZCODE EMOTICON END--> <br><br>ZL <p><!--EZCODE IMAGE START--><img src="http://webpages.charter.net/korichan/zl/R3K.gif"/><!--EZCODE IMAGE END--> <!--EZCODE IMAGE START--><img src="http://webpages.charter.net/korichan/zl/ZLstrat.gif"/><!--EZCODE IMAGE END--> <!--EZCODE BR START--><br /><!--EZCODE BR END--><br>Empires wax and wane; states cleave asunder and coalesce. <br><br><!--EZCODE ITALIC START--><em>"Swift as the wind, silent as the forest, fierce as the fire, steady as the mountain."</em><!--EZCODE ITALIC END--> A banner used by the Takeda clan of Kai (Sengoku Jidai era). </p><i></i>

It sounds fun, I thought you were going to talk about an online game, but it sounds cool. If I see a board I'll be sure to pick it up. <p><!--EZCODE CENTER START--><div style="text-align:center"><!--EZCODE IMAGE START--><img src="http://freespace.virgin.net/peter.stephenson2004/ffviiac.JPG" style="border:0;"/><!--EZCODE IMAGE END--><!--EZCODE BR START--><br /><!--EZCODE BR END--><!--EZCODE ITALIC START--><em><!--EZCODE BOLD START--><strong>Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children</strong><!--EZCODE BOLD END--></em><!--EZCODE ITALIC END--></div><!--EZCODE CENTER END--></p><i></i>