Knightmare Chess
Encyclopedia
Chess variant
A chess variant is a game related to, derived from or inspired by chess. The difference from chess might include one or more of the following:...
published by Steve Jackson Games
Steve Jackson Games
Steve Jackson Games is a game company, founded in 1980 by Steve Jackson, that creates and publishes role-playing, board, and card games, and the gaming magazine Pyramid.-History:...
(SJG) in 1996. It is a translation of a French
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
game Tempête sur l'échiquier (Storm on the Chessboard), designed by Pierre Cléquin and Bruno Faidutti
Bruno Faidutti
Bruno Faidutti is an historian and sociologist, living in France, who is best known as an author of board games. His best known games include Knightmare Chess , Mystery of the Abbey and Citadels . He is also involved in the boardgaming community with his "Ideal Games Library" website and...
.
Overview
Knightmare Chess is played with cards that change the default rules of chessRules of chess
The rules of chess are rules governing the play of the game of chess. While the exact origins of chess are unclear, modern rules first took form during the Middle Ages. The rules continued to be slightly modified until the early 19th century, when they reached essentially their current form. The...
. The cards might change how a piece
Chess piece
Chess pieces or chessmen are the pieces deployed on a chessboard to play the game of chess. The pieces vary in abilities, giving them different values in the game...
moves, move opponent's pieces, create special squares on the board
Chessboard
A chessboard is the type of checkerboard used in the board game chess, and consists of 64 squares arranged in two alternating colors...
or otherwise alter the game. For example, a card called Demotion
Demotion
A demotion is a reduction in an employee's rank or job title within the organizational hierarchy of a company, public service department, or other body. A demotion may also lead to the loss of other privileges associated with a more senior rank and/or a reduction in salary or benefits...
says:
- Replace one of your opponent's pieces (except a King or Queen) with one of his captured Pawns.
- Play this card on your turn, instead of making a regular move.
There are two sets of cards sold separately, each consisting of 80 cards. The sets are known as Knightmare Chess 1 and Knightmare Chess 2 but there's nothing at all to stop one from just shuffling both decks into one 160 card deck. SJG also sells blank cards, to be customized as the player wishes, in packs of 20.
The graphics in the English version of the Knightmare Chess cards are dark fantasy style, nightmarish
Nightmare
A nightmare is an unpleasant dream that can cause a strong negative emotional response from the mind, typically fear or horror, but also despair, anxiety and great sadness. The dream may contain situations of danger, discomfort, psychological or physical terror...
(hence the pun Knightmare) color paintings by Brazil
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
ian artist Rogerio Vilela. The French original version had a cartoonish tone, unlike the English version, and the cards in the French original version are also different from the English version.
Another innovation of the American version is to include rules for "dueling deck" play, where each player has his own customized deck, possibly built from multiple copies of the set if desired. In SJG's version, each card is marked with a point cost. The total chaotic power of one's personal deck can be measured in the sum of the points of all cards in the deck. For a balanced game each player uses the same point total, or a stronger player can use a lower point total as a handicap. Cards which are too powerful to appear more than once per side are marked with an asterisk
Asterisk
An asterisk is a typographical symbol or glyph. It is so called because it resembles a conventional image of a star. Computer scientists and mathematicians often pronounce it as star...
, indicating that a player can only put one copy of that specific card in his deck.
Critical reaction
Peter Sarrett of The Game Report called the game "outstanding", remarking that it "result[s] [in] an unpredictable game which removes the tedium of standard chess while preserving plenty of scope for strategic play," and praising the "gorgeous" paintings by Rogerio Vilela. Sarrett's only complaints concerned the printing of the cards themselves, as he found the wording occasionally confusing and the text "rather small, which makes it difficult for players with poorer eyesight to play the game".Ken Tidwell of The Game Cabinet praised the game for including "elements from both the strategic/predictable side of gaming and the wild/disorderly side" and found the artwork "striking" and "succeed[ing] in creating an air of comic horror". He concluded, "If I had to find a fault with the game it is that there is no attempt to reconcile the strategic game with the chaotic game and the contrast is a bit jarring. Even so, at the end of the day it is a good game and one well worth checking out."
Conversely, Steve Darlington of RPGnet, while finding the artwork "absolutely gorgeous" and that "in terms of sheer presentation ... [Knightmare Chess] is streets ahead of anything I've seen in years", felt that while the game itself "might make for an interesting game or two, it's not something you'll be playing an awful lot." He said "the dark design only conflicts with the abstract nature of the game, and ends up being more humorous than dramatic" and that it "ultimately doesn't hold your attention for too long".