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Beastmaster Chess. Large chess variant with a fantasy theme, emphasizing leaping pieces. (8x11, Cells: 84) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
George Duke wrote on Wed, Jan 26, 2005 06:43 PM UTC:Good ★★★★
Yet within the 'ABC's of 'Large CVs': Some games have to be judged by their unifying concept more than playability. It is a subtle distinction that needs to be made with the proliferation of forms because of computers. One example is 'Rolling Kings', a fine 'idea game'. Beastmaster Chess is centered around the plan of having all leaping pieces. That has only been tried a few times before: an instance is Cavalier Chess, though the latter is not a Large CV and has one non-leaper. Beastmaster extends the leaps up to five steps away in the 'Wyvern'. By 'leapers' we tend to mean 'oblique leapers'. Of dubious playability, Beastmaster is still a great notion. It does not go so far as to include any of Charles Gilman's Bemes(11,3), Soll(7,4), Albatross(9,2), Deacon(8,7), Stork(7,2) etc. of 'From Ungulates Outward'.

David Paulowich wrote on Sun, Dec 25, 2005 06:19 PM UTC:Good ★★★★
It looks like the Pegasus can visit every square on the board, while the Roc and the Wyvern can visit every square of one color. The (Murray) Lion is limited to a quarter of the board - unless it captures on an adjacent square.

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