And so The Vintage Gamer returns to its regular yet irregular schedule. In this show I spend over an hour talking about one of my secret loves: chess variants. I talk about games of the past, games from other countries, and some other unusual variants. (and this barely scratches the surface). In addition, our new sponsor Bob stops by for a visit. All this, plus unrequested editorial commentary from a groundskeeper and a curious dog.

Show Notes:

• News and Notes
• Check out the website for news (but you already are…)
• Listen to Take Control of Podcasting on the Mac!
• The influence of Bobby Fischer
• Games Magazine, Jan/Feb 1981 Article
• Why chess variants?
• Chaturanga
• Shatranj
• Ethiopian Chess (Senterej)
• Burmese Chess (Sittuyin)
• Cambodian Chess (Ouk Chatrang)/Siamese Chess (Makruk)
• Citadel Chess (Shatranj al-husun)
• Tamerlane Chess (Shatranj al-kabir)
• (Turkish) Great Chess
• Four-Hand Chaturanga (Chaturaji)
• Round Chess (misnamed Byzantine Chess).
• Listen to Pulp Gamer: Out of Character!
• Chinese Chess (Xiangqi)
• Bob calls
• Korean Chess (Janggi)
• Bob makes his move
• Japanese Chess (Shogi)
• Chu Shogi
• Dai Shogi
• Tai Shogi
• Bob brings out the computer
• Listen to Zombie, Inc.!
• Circular Chess (modern version of Round Chess)
• Spherical Chess
• Toroid Chess
• Cylindrical Chess
• Hexagonal Chess (Glinski’s, others)
• 3D Chess (Star Trek, others)
• Bob nearly loses a customer
• Beyond Chess
• Fairy Chess
• Grasshopper Chess
• Nightrider
• Kreigspiel
• Alice or Looking Glass Chess
• Progressive Chess
• Knightmare Chess (designed by Bruno Faidutti)
• Chess Equalizer
• The game ends sadly
• Play Winning Chess series
• How to Reassess Your Chess, by Jeremy Silman
• Chessmaster
• Fritz
• Chess^4
• Bughouse/Crazyhouse
• Game of the 4 Seasons
• Fischer Random
• Grand Chess
• Omega Chess
• No feedback, have to catch up, sorry
• Closing

Additional Links:

• The Chess Variant Pages
• A History of Chess, by HJR Murray
• The Classified Encyclopedia of Chess Variants, by David B. Pritchard
• New Rules for Classic Games, by R. Wayne Schmittberger
• The Oxford History of Board Games, by David Parlett
• The Abstract Gamer covers Chu Shogi
• The Family Game Store (introduced me to Beyond Chess and Chess^4)
• The Spiel (introduced me to The Chess Equalizer)

Final thoughts:

With all of these games, I know I screwed something up somewhere, so feel free to correct me.

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