Far from chess, and long way from fun too

To start, a pet peeve in the world of board games is slapping the word chess into the name of a game as a way to draw eyes.

Sure sometimes it makes logical sense. Omega Chess as an example is acceptable because the game is so obviously a variant – one of my personal favourites – of the basic chess most know.

Shape Chess – this column’s review game – has zero that connects it to chess unless you count being an abstract strategy game and that would mean it should be Xs & Os Chess, (it would make as much sense).

So out of the box this one was a tad misleading. I know when I first read the rules online I was quite surprised that it had no connection to chess.

That doesn’t mean the game play is bad, it just isn’t reflected in the game name.

So what is game play here?

Well, players’ are trying to build up reflectional symmetric shapes with their stones  -- a concept a little hard to visualize from a rules read (at least for Trevor and I, but in-game it becomes more obvious).

To achieve this goal, players can either drop a stone on a empty point, jump one of their stones to another empty point, or push an opponent's stone to an adjacent empty point.

Once you achieve a scorable pattern the pieces are removed. You will often find you need to avoid completing patterns because the removal opens the board allowing your opponent freedom to complete bigger patterns, or the one needed to win. It’s annoying that you could score but really mustn’t if you want a chance to win.

Points are given according to the size of the symmetric shape, and the winner will be the player who reach four points – although the end goal can be adjusted to taste.

This one is another small box, cloth board, wooden pieces effort from Kanare_Abstract. On the publisher’s website it notes, “Shape Chess originated in China around 2010 and has evolved into its current form through years of refinement within the game design community.”

Shape Chess isn’t a bad game, but it didn’t capture our imagination either. There are, in the end a number of game from the same publisher which we enjoy significantly more.

But tastes do differ so check it out at kanare-abstract.com, it might be the perfect game for you.