Fearsome Chess
Inspired by the complex hierarchy of fear found in nature, this game gives a new life to a childhood game like "Fear Me!" by transforming it into a strategic chess variant.
This game has different names around the world and uses different animals in the fear hierarchy according to the local fauna. The game I remember had the following hierarchy:
- Mouse was afraid of the Cat
- Cat was afraid of the Dog
- Dog was afraid of the Wolf
- Wolf was afraid of the Hunter
- Hunter was afraid of the Mouse
I decided to add an extra Bear in this hierarchy (in between the Wolf and Hunter) in order to match the six types of chess pieces.
Setup
The initial setup looks like this:
Pieces
Each player has the following pieces:
- 2 Hunters (Kings),
- 2 Bears (Queens),
- 2 Wolves (Rooks),
- 2 Dogs (Bishops),
- 2 Cats (Knights),
- 8 Mice (Pawns).
Pieces move like their chess counterparts.
Capturing
Capturing follows the hierarchy of fear. Mice can be captured by Cats, or other Mice. Cats can be captured by Dogs, or other Cats, etc. Hunters are the only exception. They can be captured by the Mice, but other Hunters will behave like regular chess Kings.
Rules
The objective of the game is to capture three of the four red squares.
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By Florin Lupusoru.
Last revised by Florin Lupusoru.
Web page created: 2024-02-25. Web page last updated: 2024-03-03