''Bosworth'' is a
four-handed chess variant
A chess variant is a game related to, derived from, or inspired by chess. Such variants can differ from chess in many different ways.
"International" or "Western" chess itself is one of a family of games which have related origins and could be co ...
manufactured by
Out of the Box Publishing company since
1998
1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''.
Events January
* January 6 – The ''Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for Lunar water, frozen water, in soil i ...
. It is played on 6x6 board and uses 4 sets of standard
chess piece
A chess piece, or chessman, is a game piece that is placed on a chessboard to play the game of chess. It can be either White and Black in chess, white or black, and it can be one of six types: King (chess), king, Queen (chess), queen, Rook (ches ...
s.
Instead of traditional
chess
Chess is a board game for two players. It is an abstract strategy game that involves Perfect information, no hidden information and no elements of game of chance, chance. It is played on a square chessboard, board consisting of 64 squares arran ...
pieces, the "kingdoms" are represented by pictures of the pieces on large colored
tokens, (each player has his own color: red, yellow, green, or blue), accompanied by a humorous picture of a ''
Dork Tower
''Dork Tower'' is an online comics, comic created, written and drawn by John Kovalic. It chronicles the lives of a group of geeks living in the fictional town of Mud Bay, Wisconsin. Mud Bay's design is strongly influenced by the writer's home, a ...
'' character.
Rules
The game can be played by two to four players,
pieces act like their normal chess counterparts (i.e.
rooks move vertically and horizontally), with minor exceptions.
Due to the multi-player nature of the game, there is no checkmate and kings can be captured. The goal of the game is to be the last player who still has a king.
''Bosworth'' has certain rules for game set-up and placing new pieces on the board. The game board has 36 squares, in a 6x6 pattern, but the four corner squares are marked by trees, which designate the squares as impassable, and the remaining four squares between the trees on each side are marked by tents and are the "camps" of the pieces.
At the start of the game each player takes his tokens, puts four pawns in his spawn camp, and shuffles the remaining tokens face down into a deck. From there the player draws four tokens from the top of the deck, and chooses from these tokens to replace empty spots in their spawn camp. The player must then draw enough pieces from the deck to get four in their hand.
Reception
The reviewer from the online second volume of ''
Pyramid
A pyramid () is a structure whose visible surfaces are triangular in broad outline and converge toward the top, making the appearance roughly a pyramid in the geometric sense. The base of a pyramid can be of any polygon shape, such as trian ...
'' stated that "Take Chess, the classic game that all of us in gaming grew up playing. Add in some whimsical art by industry veteran (and Murphy's Rules artist) John Kovalic. Stir in a healthy dose of playing cards. Mix thoroughly. What you get is Bosworth, "The Game You Already Know How to Play.""
Reviews
*''
Backstab'' #11
See also
*
Forchess
References
External links
*
*
RPGnet: Review of ''Bosworth''by Tom Vasel
{{Chess variants, state=expanded
Chess variants
1998 in chess
Board games introduced in 1998