Enter Your Reply The Comment You're Replying ToAnonymous wrote on Tue, Nov 30, 2004 03:28 PM UTC:I apologize for not being more familiar with existing chess variants, but I hope this will not count too heavily against me in sharing what little I have to contribute. Time-Chess consists of three regulation chess boards stacked vertically on three shelves with access from both sides. The bottom board is labeled 'Past' on both sides; the middle board is labelled 'Present', and the top board 'Future'. Each board has a full set of Black and White pieces, making for 32 pieces per board, or 96 in all. Each board is given regulation alpha-numerics, A-H and 1-8. For clarity, it must be from one side only, so that White's A-1 remains Black's H-8. Each chess piece is given an alpha-numeric. For instance; Past King and Past King's Pawn (white or black) are labelled PK. Again; Present Queen's Knight or Present Queen's Knight's Pawn (black or white) are labelled PrQKt. Future King's Rook or it's Pawn would be FKR. The whole thing can be set up by getting dime store chess boards and plastic chess sets. Then you take a model-maker's paint brush, say the 00 size, and some white and black model-maker's paint (Testor's), and you hand-letter every other square on the chessboards, and their time names (Past, Present, Future), and you hand-letter each chess piece with its proper designation, as; PK, PrQKt, FKR, and so on. Now you can keep track of things. The moves. You can make regulation chess moves on individual boards. These are the sub-games. The overgame is what is called Time-Chess, and involves time-moves and time-attack. A time-move simply incorporates a regulation move with a jump from one board to another. You cannot skip the Present board, but can move from Past to Present, and Present to Future, or Future to Present, and Present to Past. This and the following arbitrary rules help to make for more meaningful playability, which is a trade-off between power plays vs. strategy. In a time-attack move, you combine a time-move with an attack/capture. In normal subgame attacks, you keep your attacking piece. In time-attack, you lose your attacking piece. This is based on the logical interpretation that 'no two things can exist in the same space at the same time', thus, to appear on an enemy square through time is to sacrifice your attacking piece. Temporal succession. If you lose a Past piece, you lose its corresponding Present and Future counterparts. Hence; if you lose a Past Rook's Pawn, you find the corresponding Present and Future Rook's Pawns, locating them by their alpha-numeric labels, and remove them also. This is logical, as what ceases to exist in the past cannot exist anymore in the present or future. No matter where the successor pieces may have been time-moved to, they must be located and removed. If you lose a Present piece, you lose the corresponding Future piece, but not the Past piece. So if you lose a Present Queen's Knight, you also remove the Future piece, or FQKt, but not the Past one. If you lose a Future piece, you only lose it and not its predecessors. If you lose a King, you lose all its pieces and successor Kings and pieces. So if you lose your Future King, you lose all your Future pieces. If your opponant loses her/his Present King, she/he loses all Present and Future Kings and pieces. If you lose your Past King, you lose the entire game. Thus, if you use your Present King's Rook to time-attack your opponant's Past Queen's Bishop, you lose, in one move, your Present and Future King's Rooks, and your opponant loses his/her Past, Present, and Future Queen's Bishops, or five pieces in all. This makes for fast-paced play but enhances strategy. If anyone wishes further clarification, I will try to help as best I can. If this duplicates anyone else's work, I apologize. These rules were published as a poem titled 'Time-Chess' in 'The Little Daisy Girl and other poems' in 1989. A game patent based on Time-Chess was filed about in the late 1970's. The original idea was first conceived in the early 1970's. 'The Little Daisy Girl' was posted to Project Gutenberg without 'Time-Chess', but the original, physical book (out of print) includes it. I could have the Time-Chess poem explaining the rules uploaded to Project Gutenberg if anyone is interested, or I can explain or clarify the rules just as easily here if anyone likes. I see that there are a lot of chess variants listed here, and some involve imaginary time travel. Perhaps someone has come up with a better and more playable variant, for which I can only enthusiastically applaud, with apologies for not already being aware of. Thank you. Edit Form You may not post a new comment, because ItemID Time-Chess does not match any item.