Chess 2000 Review

Chess 2000 (produced by C.H. Games Ltd.) is a fun strategy game for two players, which utilizes a large (12x13) multicolored board and extra Knights, Bishops and pawns. However, aside from using the same pieces, this game bares only a slight resemblance to chess as we know it.

First off is the board, which, unlike a normal chess board, is multicolored, and each piece also has a colored base. If a piece is on a square which matches the color of its base, then only pieces with the same color base can capture it. This ingenious rule adds a new level of strategy when placing one's pieces.

Secondly, the goal of the game is not to checkmate the enemy King. In this game, the King is a powerful, immortal piece, whose goal is to occupy the opponent's King's starting square. The movement powers of the King are vastly increased from normal chess, making the King a power to be reckoned with.

The result is a game that plays very differently than chess, with different strategies and different game mechanics. I found the game to be fun, although I did lose the game due to my opponent figuring out that the King, instead of being one of the weakest pieces on the board, was one of the most powerful. He used his King to decimate my army, and was able to force his way to my King's square.

Some other notes:

Since I am slightly colorblind, I found the pale colors used for the squares and piece bases to be sometimes difficult to tell apart.
Diagonal movement on the board is difficult to picture since the grid doesn't use two alternating colors (ie. the board is not checkered).
The board and pieces are fairly good production quality. As one can tell from the photos, it makes a nice looking set.
My opponent enjoyed the novelty of the powerful, warrior King, but noted that pawns could use a three square initial move.

Written by David Howe. Thanks to Fergus Duniho for assistance in playtesting and his comments on the game.

WWW page created: 5 May 2001.

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Created on: May 06, 2001. Last modified on: May 06, 2001.

Chess 2000 Review

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