x
search
menu

Game Overview: All Queens Chess, or I Can't Believe It's Not Chess

Game Overview: All Queens Chess, or I Can't Believe It's Not Chess
Board Game: All Queens Chess
I don't know about you, but I tend to groan when I see "chess" in the name of a new game release. From past talks with chess fans, I know that they rarely want to play anything other than chess — especially chess-byproducts such as designs on a 10x10 board with new pieces or the introduction of special power cards that "shake up" traditional chess play — and from my perspective as a barely competent visitor to the world of chess, I find such designs uninspiring.

Thankfully All Queens Chess from Rudell Design and ThinkFun is chess in name only, something to get grandma to pick it up off the shelf on its way to the birthday table. Yes, your pieces move like queens, but your goal is simply to place four of them in a row — and with the board being only 25 squares, the elbowing for space starts immediately.

Related

Game Overview: 10 Down, or Getting Racked Over Tea

Game Overview: 10 Down, or Getting Racked Over Tea

Jan 02, 2016

Designer Odd Hackwelder seems to have a pattern for how he names games: 8 the Liar, M80, and Monster Deck 55. Okay, not all of his games fit this pattern — e.g., Ninja Bowling and counterfeit...
Game Overview: The Game on Fire, or Playing Cards Faster

Game Overview: The Game on Fire, or Playing Cards Faster

Jan 01, 2016

When I first heard about Steffen Benndorf's The Game (a.k.a. The Game: Spiel...so lange du kannst!, a.k.a. the game that's easier to find when you search for its subtitle rather than its main...
Spiel 2015 XXVI: Rising 5, Estoril 1942, I Love Portugal, Ice Cream, Ten Cats, and Generalship

Spiel 2015 XXVI: Rising 5, Estoril 1942, I Love Portugal, Ice Cream, Ten Cats, and Generalship

Dec 29, 2015

• Time for another round-up of game preview videos recorded at Spiel 2015, starting with Rising 5, a Mastermind-style game from Gary Kim and Evan Song that layers special powers onto the co-op...
Spiel 2015 XXV: Fabulous Beasts, Safe Breaker, Heckmeck Extrawurm, Nitro Glyxerol, and Beasty Bar: New Beasts in Town

Spiel 2015 XXV: Fabulous Beasts, Safe Breaker, Heckmeck Extrawurm, Nitro Glyxerol, and Beasty Bar: New Beasts in Town

Dec 28, 2015

• When I first learned about Fabulous Beasts from George Buckenham and Alex Fleetwood, I wasn't sure whether it should be added to the BGG database, shunted to VideoGameGeek, included on both...
Spiel 2015 XXIV: Peloponnes Card Game, Fruit Mix, Giraffometer, Splash! and The Producer: 1940-1944

Spiel 2015 XXIV: Peloponnes Card Game, Fruit Mix, Giraffometer, Splash! and The Producer: 1940-1944

Dec 27, 2015

• Bernd Eisenstein's well-regarded Peloponnes board game debuted in 2009, and he's released mini-expansions for the game through his Irongames brand roughly once a year since then. Now...
ads