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Omega Chess Review. Review of commercial Chess variant set.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
Jason L. wrote on Wed, Nov 23, 2011 07:34 AM UTC:
Yes, there is more room for players to outplay each other in Omega. Draws
would be decreased due to the additional material and less played out
openings that can lead to quick draws. This game is fairly underrated by
players due to its larger board size. However, the new pieces need to be on
the larger board in order for the game to be balanced. 10x8 doesn't work
for the new Omega pieces. Also, going 10x10 solves many problems that exist
in 10x8 like the bishops being overpowered and capturing knights or
striking through to rooks in their starting position.

The size of the Omega board is more similar to Xiangqi in that is 10 spaces
(10 int. points) deep and the knight/horse has the same distance to travel
in both games. Therefore, the knight is not necessarily slow. It's the
same as the Xiangqi horse and no one who plays Xiangqi complains about the
horse being too slow. It takes time to move across the river and you have
to push out a pawn first before you can move it. In Omega, you don't need
to push a pawn first to bring your knight out which makes the development
of the piece faster still.

Chess is enough of a challenge for most players to produce a win or loss,
but as players get stronger, an expansion of the game is more needed. In
8x8 Chess, two GM's might only achieve 3-4 wins total between them in a 10
game match, but in Omega, there would probably be a 6-7 wins total and just
3-4 draws. A win or loss would be more likely than a draw. There also
wouldn't be as many cheap draws in Omega with so much material and an
additional 2 pawns.