Like many people I got into chess during the pandemic. I’d played as a kid, I watched Queen’s Gambit, and for a while I even experimented with my own version of what I now know is called fairy chess.
Trying to make my own version of chess came from two experiences.
First was in 2015 when I went to GDC and experienced Bennett Foddy’s Speed Chess (youtube), and he said:
I think game designers, if they’re serious, should have to come up with at least one Pong variant and at least one chess variant. The problem is, I kind of hate chess.
Bennet Foddy
Then in 2017 I went to the North American Toy Fair (I love trade shows) and experienced the commercial side of the vinyl toy collectible industry. That trade show is amazing because there are two main types of booths which I called “IP” and “Shapes.” IP was like Marvel and shapes was like Funko Pop. This is where the deals between IP and shape happened and it made me wish I had either IP or shapes.
So my version of chess was to create all new collectible limited edition characters. I came up with new pieces like the Juggernaut, which is a pawn that can’t be captured from the front! Anyway, production of vinyl figures is very expensive, so this idea didn’t go anywhere.
But after getting back into chess in the pandemic I still wanted to find my own chess variant.
Welcome to Chess Lab, an experiment in collaborative game playing. I present some options and then each move is voted on by KmikeyM shareholders.
Can the collective intelligence of the shareholders lead me to victory?
Game 1
We are playing black.
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