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Ultima Pieces: Illustrated Guide. Illustrated guide to how Ultima Pieces capture.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
L. Naumann wrote on Sat, Jan 1, 2011 03:55 AM UTC:
I played this game as a teenager during the 70s with my mathematician
father who found the rules in the card game book mentioned on this site. 
Dad died in 2006, and I'm not sure what became of the book, but on a whim,
I did a web search tonight and am thrilled to find such a thorough
discussion of the game!  Just renewing my acquaintance with the names of
the pieces brings back fond memories, and I'm glad to see it's still
being played. Thanks for providing this information!

Michael Nelson wrote on Wed, Feb 4, 2004 10:13 PM UTC:
You had one of Abbott's later books. The original game did not have the distance limitations, this is the change he proposed that no one else liked.

Ed wrote on Wed, Feb 4, 2004 06:52 PM UTC:
Hello, 

As a boy back in the 60’s I owned Robert Abbott’s book and learned of
Ultima from it. I was so impressed by the game, that I made my own
physical board and pieces and have taught a few people the rules from
memory. In fact, not more than 2 days ago, I taught the game to my new
wife. However, I had run across a couple of sticky problems and did not
remember if they were addressed in the rules. I told my friend about this
game yesterday at work and to my surprise I found an email with a website
with information on the actual game. It lives!

 I looked through everything and did not see the complete rules but it
alluded that they were expounded on by Mark-Jason Dominus. I would
appreciate any more info I could obtain, the more detail the better. I
remember from memory that Abbott had even mentioned the historical
sources
for some of the pieces (Greece, Rome, Madagascar, etc.). I found this
interesting because one of the things that appealed to me about chess was
its historical aspect.  

Also, the site mentioned that Abbott had changed the rules, but that
everyone liked the original version better and still plays that one. Was
this rule change that he wanted to remove the distance limitation (if on
the 1st row, you can move only 1 space, if on the 2nd row, you can move
only 2 spaces, etc.)? Were there other changes also? Any info you can
e-mail to me would be thankfully received.

Looking forward to hearing from you,
Ed Kennedy

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