Penultima is a game of inductive logic, played on a

chess Chess is a board game for two players, called White and Black, each controlling an army of chess pieces in their color, with the objective to checkmate the opponent's king. It is sometimes called international chess or Western chess to dist ...

board. It was invented by Michael Greene and Adam Chalcraft in

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a College town, university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cam ...

in 1994. The game is derived from the chess variant Ultima (otherwise known as ''Baroque chess''), and played with a standard chess board and pieces, each piece having different movement and capture rules from standard chess. In a manner similar to the game Mao, which was a popular game in Cambridge at that time, the rules for each piece vary from game to game, and are initially kept secret from the players. Penultima is similar in style to Eleusis, Zendo and Mao. The name of the game is a

pun A pun, also known as paronomasia, is a form of word play that exploits multiple meanings of a term, or of similar-sounding words, for an intended humorous or rhetorical effect. These ambiguities can arise from the intentional use of homophoni ...

on "penultimate", and "Ultima", the name of a different chess variant with all pieces replaced by fairy pieces with their own mechanics.

Rules

Several ''Spectators'' create secret rules which govern how the pieces move and two ''Players'' attempt to discover these rules. The game is traditionally played with chess pieces but may be played with any sufficiently distinct components, such as coins or Icehouse pieces. Before the game starts, the ''Spectators'' decide between themselves which pieces they will write rules for. The secret rule for a piece may for example control the way that piece moves, captures, or is captured, and may cause it to affect other pieces on the board. A piece may be given an ''invoke'' command which causes it to affect other pieces on the board without moving. When the secret rule for a piece is written, the ''Spectator'' also gives it a new name for the duration of the game. These names, and the existence of any invoke commands, are announced to the players at the start of the game. During the game the spectators may privately discuss how their rules interact. On their turn, a ''Player'' attempts to move or invoke one of their pieces, and the ''Spectator'' for that piece declares whether the action is legal or illegal. If it is legal, the movement or invocation is done, then that ''Player's'' turn ends and play passes to the other ''Player''. If it is illegal, the piece is returned to its position at the start of the turn. In the original game, play then passes to the other ''Player''; in other variants the original ''Player'' continues making attempts until he succeeds in making a legal move or invoke. If the player is in "check", they can repeatedly attempt moves until able to get out of check. As in standard

, the winning player is the one who forces his or her opponent's king (or equivalent piece) into checkmate. At the end of the game, the ''Spectators'' reveal their rules.

References

External links

“Penultima”
by Michael Fryers, from ''

Variant Chess David Brine Pritchard (19 October 1919 – 12 December 2005)''David Pritchard.'' The Times (London). Features; p. 66. 17 January 2006. was a British chess player, chess writer and indoor games consultant. He gained pre-eminence as an indoor game ...

'', Volume 3, Issue 28, Summer 1998, pages 164–165 {{Chess variants Chess variants 1994 in chess Board games introduced in 1994 Games with concealed rules

Rules

See also

References

External links