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Viking Chess. Armies start side-by-side on a 12 x 7 board. (12x7, Cells: 84) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
J. Hansen wrote on Wed, Oct 2, 2002 01:20 PM UTC:Good ★★★★
First, thanx for sending the game to me when the zip file didn't work.
Second, I find that the openings are a bit limited. Atleast that is how it
seems when I play with a computer.
What openings have you used?

Charles Gilman wrote on Sun, Mar 30, 2003 10:06 AM UTC:Good ★★★★
It is an interesting twist, but it seems odd that Rooks can be brought into action so quickly. Why is this array preferable to having them on b2, e2, h2, and k2?

Charles Gilman wrote on Sun, Jul 20, 2003 10:04 AM UTC:Good ★★★★
Partly keeping close to standard Chess, partly the trivial reason of
symmetry within as well as between armies. In retrospect the latter is
fairly trivial as the initial f1xg2 and g1xf2 could not be replicated
except by wraparound. My question was out of curiosiy rather than
criticism, and if moving further from standard Chess improves the game,
well done.
	By the way, the game really fits its name. It conveys well the idea of
warriors heading off into frozen northern wastes, as much competing to
best fight the common enemy of the elements as fighting each other. Many
games fit their names less well.

Antoine Fourrière wrote on Thu, Nov 20, 2003 09:03 PM UTC:Excellent ★★★★★
It isn't easy to come up with an interesting variant when you limit yourself to the usual pieces, and Viking Chess passes that test with flying colors. I was surprised it didn't make it to the final in the 84-square Contest, although it was certainly in the strongest bracket. Would you mind if I made a preset for it on the Game Courier?

Kevin Pacey wrote on Tue, Oct 3, 2017 01:59 AM UTC:Excellent ★★★★★

This variant is berserkly sharp, as befitting of the name, and a stronger player could easily suffer an upset loss if he is at all having an off day. The rectangular, rather than square, board cannot be helped, but it is clearly justified.

My tentative estimates for the piece values of this variant would be: P=1; B=3; N=3.5; R=5.5; Q=9.5 and the fighting value of K=3 approximately (though naturally it cannot be traded).


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