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Pillars of Medusa. A variation of Turkish Great Chess plus two additional pieces, the Morph and the Medusa. (11x11, Cells: 121) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]

Larry Smith wrote on Tue, Jan 17, 2006 03:13 PM UTC:

I recently tried this game with an alternate set-up pattern.

All the Swords are moved to the fourth rank.  The other pieces are
arranged left to right the same for both players. In other words, the
Serpent is to each players' right of their King, etc.

This offers an interesting opening game with only three rank between the
Swords to maneuver. This also shortens their distance to the promotion
rank.  With the available space behind the line of Swords, the player is
able to re-position power pieces with ease and increasing the depth of
play with the possible variety of introduction to the field.

An example of a powerful opening: advance Sword on 'f' file then slide
left-hand Advisor to its previous position.  This puts some serious
flanking pressure on the opponent early in the game.

Some might complain about the un-protected Swords of this set-up.  But
they can easily be defended with the advancement of the Queen or Serpent,
or by their simple development during the opening.  In fact, forcing an
opponent to defend these flanks can be a tactic to tie up one or both of
the major power pieces early in the game.

I am not advocating that this particular set-up replace the current.  Just
that it offers another interesting form of play with this game.