EVEN MORE GAME LINKS!

Another Commercial Game With Both Kinds of Jump

The image below:

shows the board and initial layout for the game of King's Court, sold briefly by Golden Books, a division of the Western Publishing Company, during 1989. Another image, of the board rotated 45 degrees counterclockwise from its position in the diagram above, illustrates the color scheme used:

This game is also known as Supercheckers, and its inventor, Christopher Wroth, has regained the rights to the game, and has planned to publish it again himself.

The pieces move as does a crowned man in Checkers, but with the additional ability to jump over men of their own color without capturing them, and capturing is optional as in Chess or the older jeu plaisantform of Checkers. Pieces move only on the 64 light squares of the board. The game has a setup phase consisting of the first two moves, in which jumps are not allowed, where first one player moves one of his men into the central area, and then the other player moves one of his men into the central area from the opposite side of the board. After the setup phase, the first player to be eliminated from the central area of the board loses.

As pieces move only on the 64 light squares, it could be played on an ordinary checkerboard with the pieces moving and jumping orthogonally, of course, but the design of the board nicely reflects the fact that in Checkers, pieces move diagonally.

A Curiosity From Parker Brothers

Parker Brothers was also responsible for another game which could be considered to be a simplified Chess variant:

The game of Citadel was played with four types of pieces. The Citadel, shown as a King, the Herald, shown as a Bishop, and the Baron, shown as a Queen, all moved as did their corresponding Chess pieces. Capturing the Citadel wins the game, so stalemating the opponent is a way to win. The Archer is shown as a Pawn; however, its move is different from a Pawn's move. The Archer moves and captures by moving one step orthogonally. In addition, it can move, but not capture, by jumping over a friendly piece to the square beyond; this two-space move can only be made in an orthogonal direction as well.

Note that the orthogonal move of the Archer, and the diagonal move of the Herald, are relative to the board itself when considered as a conventional Chess board, not to its orientation; thus, the Herald moves to squares of the same color in moving diagonally, although with the board as it is oriented, those are moves up, down, left, and right.

Another Game Beyond Checkers

Because of the similarity between Chivalry and Checkers, it seems appropriate to discuss another interesting game on this page which was based on Checkers, although it does not include the additional possibility of jumping over one's own men without capturing them.

The illustration above shows the board and initial layout for the Strand War Game.

This game was devised for the Strand Magazine, most famous as the original publisher of the Sherlock Holmes mysteries, during the First World War, then known as the Great War.

The rules are:

• • Infantry pieces, represented by Pawns, move forwards and sideways, such moves being diagonal on this board (and, indeed, the lighter blue squares on the board are not used), and capture by jumping, as in Checkers, the jumps being forwards or sideways.

  • Cavalry pieces, represented by Knights, capture exactly as the crowned piece or King in checkers, jumping pieces one step away in any direction. When moving, however, they can move either one space or two.

  • Artillery pieces, represented by Cannons, move one step in any direction; in addition to making normal jumps in which they move two squares to capture a piece on an adjacent square, may also move three squares to jump over an enemy piece two squares away and capture it.

  • The white squares with an octagonal shape are the capital cities of the two sides. A player cannot place one of his own pieces on his capital, and the object of the game is to place a piece on one's opponent's capital.

  • A piece on a fortress of its own color, represented by a diamond-shaped wall, or on the square in front of that fortress, represented by a square in the color of one of the sides, is immune to capture except by an artillery piece.

  • Only an artillery piece may be moved to one of the opponent's fortress squares (this does not apply to the square in front of the fortress).

  • A piece in a fortress square may remain there even if it has the opportunity to jump an opposing piece (this applies only to the fortress square itself, and apparently applies to fortress squares of either color, even though an artillery piece on a fortress square of the opposite color has no immunity from capture to give up); otherwise, capture is compulsory as in Checkers.

Clue, Pit, Monopoly, Chivalry, Camelot, Grand Camelot, Cam, Inside Moves, Citadel, Smess, All the King's Men, Peg Chow, Telka, Hexagony, and The Black Cat Fortune Telling Game are, of course, trademarks of Hasbro, the firm which currently owns Parker Brothers, The Game of Life is a trademark of Hasbro, as it is also the firm that owns Milton Bradley, King's Court is a trademark of Hasbro, not only as it is the firm that owns the boardgame operations of the Western Publishing Company, but also because it published a card game by that name a few years earlier, Parcheesi is a trademark of Hasbro, as it purchased Coleco which purchased Selchow and Righter, Hexagony is a trademark of Hasbro, as it purchased Strategic Publications International which purchased Avalon Hill, and Cluedo is a trademark of Waddington's, and Ploy is a trademark of 3M, formerly also known as the Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company. Imperium is a trademark of Schmidt Spiele. and Teeko and Scarney are trademarks of John Scarne Games, Incorporated. Othello is a trademark of Tsukuda Original. Master Mind is a trademark of Invicta Plastics.