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Almost chess

In this game, invented by Ralph Betza, all rules of the normal chess game apply, but queens now have the combined moves of rook and knight (not rook and bishop). Pritchard states that this radically changes the nature of the game, making bishops more, and knights less powerful.

A similar, ancient game with changed queens move is Amazone chess.

A variant: Sort of Almost Chess

In an email to me, dated December 16, 1995, Ralph Betza wrote me:
Almost Chess is a good game to play with a chessplayer; it is easy and natural. Perhaps you will get a regular chessplayer interested in chess variants.

Of course, you can play Sort Of Almost Chess, where one side has a normal Queen... (Hey, you know how I am about chess with different armies! :-)

Both kinds of Queen have exactly the same strength, so it is an even game, even for masters.

Note: this game was never published or even mentioned in email until now. I have known about it for more than a year; part of my research into values of pieces...

Written by Hans Bodlaender and Ralph Betza.
Updated setup diagrams Aug 2, 2018.
WWW page created: December 21, 1995. Last modified: August 2, 2018.