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Novo Chess. War game chess variant from the Netherlands, 1937. (12x8, Cells: 96) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
Charles Gilman wrote on Sat, Aug 9, 2003 07:10 AM UTC:Good ★★★★This could almost count as a 3d variant as the air/land/water pieces notionally pass over/under each other. The Miltary Engineering Unit could be an interesting addition to Xiang Qi, to help Elephants across the River. I particularly like the Bicycle Unit - very evocative of NW Europe.
gwduke wrote on Sat, Aug 9, 2003 05:58 PM UTC:I don't consider this a 3-d game at all like Charles Gilman's comment suggests, but it is important for another feature. Novo Chess has the first historic use of pieces with movements Bishop-like, Knight-like, Rook-like and Falcon-like all in one game. Its Motor Unit has four of Falcon's six patterns, but not the two 'split' Falcon ones. I believe Novo, maybe under different name, was marketed in North America in fifties or sixties. However, game itself does not play so well because of too many features and piece types. George William Duke
In 1937 Novo Chess became the first design to utilize all four modern fundamental game pieces Rook, Knight, Bishop and Falcon. On its ninety-six(96) squares (8x12), Novo's fourteen (14)piece types, each within certain special features, correspond to these more familiar game pieces: General,General Staff = King; Mil. Eng. Unit, Red Cross, Artillery, Tank = Rook; Airship, Bicycle Unit(up to 2 sqs)= Bishop; Ship, Submarine = Queen; Airplane = Knight; Motor Unit = Falcon; Infantry = Pawn; [Spy: all seven possible]. Great write-up of a game that actually achieved some popularity for a time.
1937's Novo Chess' central idea is predecessor to Greg Strong's 2004 Chess With Terrain. CWT's Mountain squares really just holes in the board (like Jacks & Witches'), CWT has River and Forest squares causing restrictions. Novo has Water and Railroad squares only certain pieces traverse. Novo's Land pieces are mostly restricted from Water squares, but most land pieces use the railroad tracks. This game has 13 piece-types on 96, CWT 10 piece-types on 201 squares not counting the 24 Mountain squares.
In contrast to Hanga Roa, Novo Chess' complicated Rules take up to an hour to master and so would not be enjoyable to many for that reason. Here in 1930's are four of the six Falcon movements in Novo's Motor Unit: o-o-d, d-o-o, d-d-o and o-d-d, orthogonal and diagonal. Rated Excellent before, Novo shows interesting features, such as Squares for transit by certain pieces, that also block off mobility, copied in principle in Jacks & Witches and also Chess with Terrain, among others. Also, the one- and two-stepping diagonal mover is found in the Bicycle Unit in early use here. The General Staff's ''switching'' is reminiscent of Swapper of Rococo.
For September Quiz question #7, Novo Chess is the only known CV with railroads so far. This Novo is a better game, produced in the 1930s and marketed after the war, than more modern cut-and-pastes. (you know, the ones in the majority that take phony glad-handing for attention by established regulars) The criticism of this Novo is over-complexity. http://www.chessvariants.org/index/displaycomment.php?commentid=23661 That's five of the ten questions answered so far. Since #10 is a subjective self-production option, #11 is the substitute tenth question: for a CV piece worth 3.88, justifying the answer. It's the follow-up comment at ChessboardMath11 all comments 3.October.2009 substituting #11 for #10.
Actually, Ralph Betza's somewhat strange PASGL 312 Chess also features a train (and train tracks), but rather different than those in Novo Chess.
This reminds me of something I saw recently that doesn't have an entry on this site: Vietnamese Commander Chess, described here: http://ancientchess.com/commander-chess/index.htm Novo Chess looks even more compicated, but both try to replicate modern warfare the way Shaturanga was trying to replicate ancient warfare.
Greg Strong wrote on Sat, Mar 10, 2018 10:14 PM UTC:Thank you for the link. I will work on making a page for Vietnamese Commander Chess.
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