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Pillars of Medusa. A variation of Turkish Great Chess plus two additional pieces, the Morph and the Medusa. (11x11, Cells: 121) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]

💡📝Gary Gifford wrote on Tue, Jan 17, 2006 05:53 PM UTC:

Larry: Thanks for sharing the idea regarding placing all the Swords[pawns]
on the fourth rank.  Your reasoning, which I quote in part, is good:
'...the player is able to re-position power pieces with ease and
increasing the depth of play with the possible variety of introduction to
the field.'  

In the original POM most can pieces can enter the field quickly by leaping
over the second rank pawns, or moving diagonally when one moves forward. 
As in chess, the rooks are the slow guys.

Pawns on the 4th ranks would be subject to a faster Medusa attack by the
opponent.  Anyway, your idea sounds like it is worth a try.

Another 'try' lies between your idea and the original.  It would be to
place all swords (pawns) on the third rank, put the Medusa and Morph on E2
and G2 (to keep them central), and to put the Pillars at A2 and K2. 
Possible then remove one or two ranks from the board to put the armies
closer.

As a development note: Pillars of Medusa was my very first chess variant,
and at the time it was just for a novel I was working on... in the novel a
mind-reading queen plays POM against the hero.  His pieces have, within
them, the names of his friends (who are prisoners of the queen).  When he
loses a piece the queen reveals the name inside, and has that person
executed.  Not a fun way to have to play a game.

Larry Smith wrote on Tue, Jan 17, 2006 03:13 PM UTC:

I recently tried this game with an alternate set-up pattern.

All the Swords are moved to the fourth rank.  The other pieces are
arranged left to right the same for both players. In other words, the
Serpent is to each players' right of their King, etc.

This offers an interesting opening game with only three rank between the
Swords to maneuver. This also shortens their distance to the promotion
rank.  With the available space behind the line of Swords, the player is
able to re-position power pieces with ease and increasing the depth of
play with the possible variety of introduction to the field.

An example of a powerful opening: advance Sword on 'f' file then slide
left-hand Advisor to its previous position.  This puts some serious
flanking pressure on the opponent early in the game.

Some might complain about the un-protected Swords of this set-up.  But
they can easily be defended with the advancement of the Queen or Serpent,
or by their simple development during the opening.  In fact, forcing an
opponent to defend these flanks can be a tactic to tie up one or both of
the major power pieces early in the game.

I am not advocating that this particular set-up replace the current.  Just
that it offers another interesting form of play with this game.

💡📝Gary Gifford wrote on Sun, Jan 15, 2006 10:52 PM UTC:

I just made a Mini-POM (Mini-Pillars of Medusa) on a 9x9 board (as compared
to the 121 (11 x 11) board of the original game.  Mini-POM retains the
Medusa and the Morph pieces, but does not include the Great Chess Pieces.

A link to the pre-set is below.  Rules can be accessed by the rules-link
at the pre-set.  As a note to those not familiar with Pillars of Medusa,
the Medusa piece freezes adjacent enemy pieces.  The Morph can change into
a Morph-version of what it captures.

/play/pbm/play.php?game%3DMini-POM+%28Mini+Pillars+of+Medusa%29%26settings%3DMini-POM

Jean-Louis Cazaux wrote on Thu, Oct 30, 2003 11:35 AM UTC:Good ★★★★

I like these 2 new pieces a lot. 
The only point I regret is the use of new names for old pieces, sword for
pawn, advisor for bishop, and for faeric pieces as well. Those have
already too many names, why creating new ones that just add confusion ?

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