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The 39 challenge: The winners
In the fall of 1998 and winter and spring of 1999, a contest to design a
chess variant was held on the Internet.
This was the second contest held on our website.
The challenge was:
Design a chess variant on a board with 39 squares.
Fifteen games, invented by sixteen different chess variant inventors
from all over the world (and many different ages and occupations) have been submitted.
The submitted games were very diverse, with boards in many different
shapes, rules of great ingenuity.
To all who submitted a game or helped in other ways: by commenting on
the games, voting on them, playing them, making `zillions-files' for
them: many thanks!
A special thanks
goes to David Howe, who helped with making the html-files
and organized the tournament where the submitted games were tested out
in actual play (by email.)
The votes
The winning games were decided by voting. Every reader of the Chess
Variant Pages could vote, using an email-form.
Regrettably, only eight people used the opportunity to vote. From the
votes, five finalists were chosen. The final points received by the
finalists were calculated by using votes received in the first round and
the (very few) votes for the final voting. Points between 1 and 4 could
be given to each game.
The results of the finalists are:
- First place: Robber Baron: average
of 2.83 points. Congratulations to Seth McGinnis!
- Second place: Thirty-Nine Squares Chess, by Andy Kurnia:
average of 2.75 points.
- Third place: Heaven, by Rob Nierse: average of 2.67
points.
- Fourth place: Combination chess, by David Howe:
average of 2.6 points.
- Fifth place: Power Chess 98, by Ronald
Hoekstra.
Congratulations to all winners! While the scores of the finalists are
close together (each of the games good enough to reach a place in the
finals), we indeed have a worthy winner! Many congratulations to Seth
McGinnis.
Prizes
Each of the finalists will receive a copy of the Chess Variant Pages
Offline CD-rom. Seth McGuinness receives a set of Heraldic
Chess, donated by Modest Solans. Andy Kurnia will receive a copy of
David Moeser's Neue Chess, donated by David Moeser.
The `Best Game for Children' Award
One of the games submitted to the contest receives the `Best Game
for Children' award, chosen by a competent jury: Wim Bodlaender (8
years old) and Marijke Bodlaender (10 years old). Nominees for this
award are: Hex39, Robber-Baron, King and Queen, and 4-player Pothole
Chess.
The winner of this award is Robber-Baron. Second place in this category
is given to Hex39.
Thank you and see you with the next contest!
Thanks again to all participants! We saw many interesting good and
enjoyable ideas, and I hope you will have had as much fun designing the
games as I had testing them out.
A new contest to design a chess variant on a board with 40 squares will
start very soon. The contest is more or less held as this one, with two
differences: we have more prizes (!), and will use a different way to
determine the winners.
Written by Hans Bodlaender.
WWW page created: June 29, 1998. Last modified: October 10, 1999.
Last modified: Monday, December 22, 2008
