Chess Variants

‘Sovereign Chess’ is a Battle Without Loyalty or Humanity

I have a terrible addiction to chess variants. My favorite variants add new and bizarre angles to the traditional game. Uncertainty, asymmetry, obstacles, new goals, or a new spacial dimension. But Sovereign Chess re-engineers the traditional game into a completely new beast.

I’d been thinking about buying Sovereign Chess for about a year. But I’m very stingy with my game dollars. I practice what I preach and do my damnedest to extend my existing collection’s replayability. Even with my weakness for chess variants, I resisted the urge.

So I nearly shat myself when THE INDOMITABLE Mark Bates offered me a review copy. Because NOBODY offers me review copies. I’m the guy who politicizes Pandemic and makes board games play themselves. Then again, I’m also the guy with over a dozen chess variants, so this is definitely my jam.

It’s best to start with the individual changes:

• The board is 16x16. That’s the biggest single chess board in my collection so far (Pi doesn’t count. That board comes in 4 sections.).
• The two player game requires…