Check out Symmetric Chess, our featured variant for March, 2024.

This page is written by the game's inventor, Florin Lupusoru.

Sorry, King!

This game started as a joke but soon I realised its potential. 

At first, I tried to mix Monopoly with Chess and I didn't like it. Then I remembered a funny game I used to play as a child. This game is a variation of the Sorry game improved by a German inventor who called it: "Man, don't get mad!"  This game quickly became very popular in Europe and around the world under various names such as: "Man, don't get angry!", "Sorry to bother you!", "Sorry, my brother!" etc.

People might remember that this game was packed together with the game of Chess, advertised as "bringing adulthood and childhood together!". 

Once I decided on the setup, the hardest thing was to find a proper name. 

Setup

The initial setup looks like this.

1) Anticlockwise version

2) Clockwise version

Two parallel games are played simultaneously, a game of Chess, and a variation of Sorry, also known as "Man, don't get mad!"

Pieces

Each player has a complete set of Chess pieces and five checkers, or pegs. The chess pieces follow the standard setup, while the checker pieces are placed on a red square and enter the game one at a time.  

Each set of pieces will only move in their own territory: the chess pieces in the 8x8 central square, while the checker pieces will move around the 8x8 chess board in an anticlockwise (or clockwise) direction starting from their own red square. Their movement is not decided by a dice, but by the value of the last chess piece moved. 

Players take turns making one chess move, and one checker move, in this order. The values of a chess piece will decide how many squares a checker piece will move.

Piece relative values vs number of squares

Pawn = 1

Knight = 2

Bishop = 3

Rook = 4

Queen = 5

King = 6

Captured checker pieces will re enter the game as soon as their red square is not occupied by a friendly checker. If all available checker pieces are on the board, the captured checker piece will enter the game straight away. 

Rules

Two games are played simultaneously and they influence one another. 

Chess pieces decide how many squares checker pieces will move, as explained above.

Checker pieces determine de colour of the chess pieces on the row/column they control. Controlling a row/column means that two checker pieces, of the same or different colour, have to be on the oposite ends of that row/column. 

Here we have three different outcomes:

Example diagram for all three situations: 

Explanation:

Additional information

Winning conditions

Notes

This game can be played both anticlockwise, or clockwise. Players have to decide which version they prefer. 

Another variant of this game uses the standard values of the pieces to decide how many squares a checker piece will move.

Standard values

Pawn = 1

Knight = 3

Bishop = 3

Rook = 5

Queen = 9

King = 10



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By Florin Lupusoru.

Last revised by Florin Lupusoru.


Web page created: 2024-02-20. Web page last updated: 2024-03-22