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Omega Chess Review. Review of commercial Chess variant set.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
Jason L. wrote on Wed, Nov 23, 2011 07:34 AM UTC:
Yes, there is more room for players to outplay each other in Omega. Draws
would be decreased due to the additional material and less played out
openings that can lead to quick draws. This game is fairly underrated by
players due to its larger board size. However, the new pieces need to be on
the larger board in order for the game to be balanced. 10x8 doesn't work
for the new Omega pieces. Also, going 10x10 solves many problems that exist
in 10x8 like the bishops being overpowered and capturing knights or
striking through to rooks in their starting position.

The size of the Omega board is more similar to Xiangqi in that is 10 spaces
(10 int. points) deep and the knight/horse has the same distance to travel
in both games. Therefore, the knight is not necessarily slow. It's the
same as the Xiangqi horse and no one who plays Xiangqi complains about the
horse being too slow. It takes time to move across the river and you have
to push out a pawn first before you can move it. In Omega, you don't need
to push a pawn first to bring your knight out which makes the development
of the piece faster still.

Chess is enough of a challenge for most players to produce a win or loss,
but as players get stronger, an expansion of the game is more needed. In
8x8 Chess, two GM's might only achieve 3-4 wins total between them in a 10
game match, but in Omega, there would probably be a 6-7 wins total and just
3-4 draws. A win or loss would be more likely than a draw. There also
wouldn't be as many cheap draws in Omega with so much material and an
additional 2 pawns.

Annoyed wrote on Mon, Aug 6, 2007 11:21 PM UTC:Excellent ★★★★★

I wish that uneducated chess players will stop complaining about draw possibilities. Don't you get it? A well played game by both sides will result in a draw.

In omega chess - the rook and king vs king is a draw - deal with it.

Stalemate was a beautiful improvement to ancient chess and is here to stay.

The problem in regular chess is NOT draws - it is short draw offers and opening memorization - (too much games are played out) .

Another thing - while this is a great variant, it is even more useful for stronger players. Weaker players can stick to regular chess or if they hate the draw rules and cannot understand the beauty of them - give up chess.


st wrote on Wed, Jul 23, 2003 03:31 AM UTC:Excellent ★★★★★
I just got an omega chess board. Actually you CAN do a checkmate by just using a king and rook. Of course if the king goes into the extra corner square it is a stalemate.

Jean-Louis Cazaux wrote on Tue, Jul 23, 2002 11:35 AM UTC:
I was pleased to read the previous comment by M.Howe. I totally share his
point of view for an alternate array similar to GrandChess (or my own 
Shako). It is what I call 'Decimal Omega' and proposed into my 
'War of the Worlds'.
see http://www.chessvariants.com/large.dir/warworlds.html
The specific board being like a commercial signature for Omega Chess, 
I don't think that there is a single chance that either M.Howe or me
being listened by the inventors of Omega. Too bad !

M.Howe wrote on Sun, Jul 21, 2002 08:24 PM UTC:
After visiting the Omega Chess website I learned that King and Rook cannot
force mate vs. a lone king because of the extra corner squares.  In fact,
even some fairly large forces cannot enforce mate if the opposing king can
get to the correct corner square.  This seems to me to make the game more
drawish than it needs to be.  I would therefore propose, to make the game
less drawish, that the corner squares disappear after the wizards move off
of them for the first time.  Or, I would propose that an array analogous
to the one used in Freeling's Grand Chess be adopted, with pawns on the
third rank and wizards on a1/a8 and j1/j8.  On the positive side, Omega
Chess sets seem to the reasonably prices and come with both 10x10 and 8x8
boards.  I think I'll get one.

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