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Great Shatranj. Great Shatranj. (10x8, Cells: 80) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
George Duke wrote on Sat, Dec 8, 2007 08:40 PM UTC:
Consisting of one(1) possible new combination(out of ten millions) of known elements(out of millions), the eight piece-types of stock compounds are all used often enough. Or two(2) since we are now permitted to substitute Rook for the poor cornered 'Dabbabah' here, that being why there are two pictures. Four of Great Shatranj's pieces, King and Knight and General and Pawn, as early OrthoChess Pawn without two-step, are unchanged from their longstanding counterparts. For new readers, General here is nothing but 800-year-old Courier Chess 'Man' appearing frequently under differing names. That leaves four(4) remaining piece-types to place, as there are no novelties in the Rules section. Prior uses of 'Minister', 'High Priestess', 'Dababba' and 'Elephant' abound before this 2006 design. Its 'Dababbah'(spelled thus differently) is, after two cases, Betza's Chess Different Armies'(1980's) Woody Rook and Lavieri's Altair's (2003) Lion Man. Its 'Elephant' is adaptation of Weijden's (1937) Novo Chess' Bicycle Unit, and the method of movement(FA) occasionally appears identically in small Chesses. Its Minister(NDW) and its High Priestess(NAF) are triple compounds that can be found in Ralph Betza's now 13-year-old Augmented Different Knights from year 1994. So, is the whole greater than sum of its parts? Not likely, instead another approximately average mishmash of pre-existing quantities, slightly further to be discounted for recency of year-2006 effort, by which time anyone should begin to know better.