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Orwell Chess. Three player variant themed on George Orwell's 1984. (7x12, Cells: 84) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]

Charles Gilman wrote on Sat, Jun 7, 2003 07:54 AM UTC:Poor ★

My concurrence is with the judges' rejection of this game. It is too
crowded and too far from the mainstream.
	It is crowded as only one empty file separates the armies, although you
make good use of the Gryphon move to reduce army size from 21 to 17. A
better vertical wraparound would be 21 ranks by 4 files, with 16-piece
armies starting in square formations 3 ranks apart. This would also
eliminate colourbinding.
	The choice of pieces is bizarre. You label as Dabbaba a piece that turns
out to be a Bishop, when a quite different usage of Dabbaba is now
established. You use a piece from a Shogi variant, when standard Shogi has
plenty of distinct pieces, from a feeble but Honourable Horse to almost
queenly Dragon pieces. What would be wrong with a Dragonhorse for the
Bishop move (plus enough to not be colourbound!) and a standard Dabbaba or
even Dabbaba+Wazir combined piece for a reduced Rook move.