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🕸Fergus Duniho wrote on Mon, Dec 12, 2005 04:26 PM UTC:
I think we can draw an easy parallel between El Juego de las Amazonas and Jeu de Dames. One is Spanish for Game of the Amazons, and the other is French for Game of Dames, Game of Ladies, or Game of Queens, depending on whether you want a translation based on etymology, connotation, or context. Jeu de Dames is known to Americans as Checkers and to the British as Draughts. Its French name reveals its relation to Chess, for Dame is the French word used for the Queen in Chess, and it was previously used for the Ferz when that piece was included in the game. I believe Jeu de Dames is so called, because its pieces are modified versions of the old Chess Queens that moved one space diagonally. Likewise, the pieces in El Juego de las Amazonas are modified Chess Queens of the modern variety. They differ from Chess Queens by being archers, and if you know the significance of the word amazon, it is obvious why this name was chosen for these pieces. Jeu de Dames is the game I have given as a paradigm of what sort of strategy boardgame is not a Chess variant. Furthermore, El Juego de las Amazonas is even more different from Chess than Jeu de Dames is. The goal of elimination is related to the goal of checkmate, as both depend on the ability of pieces to capture. But the goal of El Juego de las Amazonas is territory, and it is more closely related to games like Go or Reversi. Since Jeu de Dames is related to Chess without being a Chess variant, and El Juego de las Amazonas has no more of a relation to Chess than Jeu de Dames has, perhaps even less, I conclude that El Juego de las Amazonas is not a Chess variant.

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