Knightmare Chess

Chess variant played with rule-modifying cards

For the chess variant where kings are replaced with knights, see Knightmate.

Knightmare Chess 2 cover art.

Knightmare Chess is a fantasy chess variant published by Steve Jackson Games (SJG) in 1996. It is a translation of a French game Tempête sur l'échiquier (Storm on the Chessboard), designed by Pierre Cléquin and Bruno Faidutti. A stand-alone 80 card expansion called Series 2 was scheduled for a December 1997 release.[1]

## Overview

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The card called Demotion.

Knightmare Chess is played with cards that change the default rules of chess. The cards might change how a piece moves, move opponent's pieces, create special squares on the board or otherwise alter the game. For example, a card called Demotion 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 [2] and Knightmare Chess 2;[3] a single 160 card deck can be created by shuffling both decks together. SJG also sells blank cards, that can be customized by the player, in packs of 20.[4]

The graphics in the English version of the Knightmare Chess cards are dark fantasy style, nightmarish (hence the pun Knightmare) color paintings by Brazilian 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 their 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, indicating that a player can only put one copy of that specific card in their deck.

## Critical reaction

[edit]

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."[5]

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."[6]

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."[7]

In Issue 13 of Arcane, Andy Butcher rated the game 7 out of 10, calling it "an utterly bonkers game that's best played every now and then. as a change from Magic, roleplaying or whatever else you normally do."[8]

## Reviews

[edit]

* Shadis #30 (1996)
* The Duelist #16[9]
* Family Games: The 100 Best[10]

## See also

[edit]

* Fairy chess piece
* Trading card games

## Footnotes

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1. ^ Varney, Allen (October 1997), "Inside the Industry", The Duelist, no. #19, p. 77
2. ^ Jackson, Steve (April 1996). Knightmare Chess: The Original Game of Chaos on the Chessboard. Steve Jackson Games, Incorporated. ISBN 1-55634-332-9.
3. ^ Jackson, Steve (February 1997). Knightmare Chess: More Chaos on the Chessboard. Steve Jackson Games, Incorporated. ISBN 1-55634-348-5.
4. ^ "Knightmare Chess!". Retrieved 2007-03-31.
5. ^ Knightmare Chess Review Archived 2004-01-10 at the Wayback Machine Peter Sarrett, The Game Report, Issue 4.2, Winter 1996
6. ^ Knightmare Chess Review Ken Tidwell, The Game Cabinet
7. ^ Knightmare Chess Review Steve Darlington, RPGnet, February 13, 1999
8. ^ Butcher, Andy (December 1996). "Games Reviews". Arcane (13). Future Publishing: 71.
9. ^ "The Duelist # 16". April 1997.
10. ^ Lowder, James (2010). Family games : The 100 best. Green Ronin. ISBN 978-1-934547-21-2.

## External links

[edit]

* Knightmare Chess at Bruno Faidutti's Website
* English publisher's website
* First product announcement, March 26, 1996: "SJ Games' Knightmare Chess Coming in July"
* Knightmare Chess and Knightmare Chess 2 at BoardGameGeek

* v
* t
* e

Chess variants (list)

Orthodox rules|

| Different starting position|

* Fischer random chess
* Displacement chess
* Transcendental chess

|

Different number of pieces|

* Dunsany's chess
* Handicap

Unorthodox board|

* Balbo's game
* Circular chess
* Cylinder chess
* Double chess
* Grid chess
* Hexagonal chess (Cross chess, Masonic chess)
* Infinite chess
* Millennium 3D chess
* Minichess (Los Alamos chess)
* Rhombic chess
* Spherical chess
* Three-dimensional chess
* Triangular chess

Unorthodox
rules with
traditional
pieces|

| Standard
8×8 board|

* Andernach chess
* Atomic chess
* Beirut chess
* Checkless chess
* Chessplus
* Circe chess
* Crazyhouse
* Cubic chess
* Dynamo chess
* Extinction chess
* Hostage chess
* Knight relay chess
* Legan chess
* Losing chess
* Madrasi chess
* Monochromatic chess
* Patrol chess
* PlunderChess
* Portal chess
* Progressive chess
* Three-check chess
* Way of the Knight

|

Multimove variants|

* Avalanche chess
* Kung-Fu Chess
* Marseillais chess
* Monster chess
* Progressive chess

Elements of chance|

* Dark chess
* Dice chess
* Knightmare Chess
* Kriegspiel
* Penultima

Unorthodox rules on
an unorthodox board|

* 5D Chess with Multiverse Time Travel
* Alice chess
* Apocalypse
* Chad
* Chessence
* Congo
* Diplomat chess
* Dragonfly
* Jeson Mor
* Parallel worlds chess
* Rollerball

Unorthodox
rules using
non-traditional
pieces|

| Standard 8×8 board|

* Baroque
* Berolina
* Chakra
* Chess with different armies
* Duell
* Falcon–hunter chess
* Grasshopper chess
* Musketeer chess
* Pocket mutation chess
* Cheskers

|

Compound pieces|

* Almost chess
* Capablanca chess
* Capablanca random chess
* Chancellor chess
* Embassy chess
* Grand Chess
* Janus Chess
* Maharajah and the Sepoys
* Modern chess
* Seirawan chess
* Tutti-frutti chess

Unorthodox
boards and pieces|

* 2000 A.D.
* Chesquerque
* Chess on a really big board
* Courier-Spiel
* Dragonchess
* Gess
* Omega Chess
* Stratomic
* Dekle's triangular chess
* Wildebeest chess
* Wolf chess

Multiplayer|

* Bosworth
* Bughouse chess
* Business chess
* Djambi
* Duchess
* Enochian chess
* Forchess
* Fortress chess
* Four Fronts
* Four-player chess
* Gala
* Hand and brain
* Quatrochess
* Three-man chess
* Three-player chess
* Tri-chess

Inspired games|

* Arimaa
* Jetan
* Martian chess
* Navia Dratp
* The Duke

Chess-related
games|

| Historical|

* Chadarangam
* Chaturaji
* Chaturanga
* Courier chess
* Grant Acedrex
* Semedo
* Shatranj
* Short assize
* Tamerlane chess

|

Regional|

* Janggi
* variants
* Makruk
* Senterej
* Shatar
* Shogi
* Chu shogi
* Dai shogi
* Other variants
* Sittuyin
* Xiangqi
* Jungle
* Banqi
* Manchu chess
* Game of the Three Kingdoms
* Game of the Three Friends
* Game of the Seven Kingdoms
* Other variants

Software|

* ChessV
* Fairy-Max
* XBoard
* Zillions of Games

Related|

* Correspondence chess
* Fairy chess
* Fairy chess piece
* Fairy Chess Review
* The Chess Variant Pages
* Checkers

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