ChessPlus - A great Christmas gift

by Arne Kaehler
12/12/2020 – What is a good gift for a passionate chess player? ChessBase has a huge variety of nice digital presents, which make even more sense in these weird times, no doubt! But there might be something else as an option - something physical. Chessplus has been on the market since a couple of years, but this time it is easier than ever to get a hold of it. | Photos: from Chessplus
Winning starts with what you know
The new version 18 offers completely new possibilities for chess training and analysis: playing style analysis, search for strategic themes, access to 6 billion Lichess games, player preparation by matching Lichess games, download Chess.com games with built-in API, built-in cloud engine and much more.

Chessplus - A new way to play chess

Chessplus is a board game that allows you to merge the pieces from traditional chess. Now you can forge superhero chess pieces, like the jumping queen, or a pawn with the power of a rook.

Originally made in Australia, Chessplus is now easily available in Europe because they teamed up with an adventurous family from Denmark. How, and why that happened, we discover in an interview with the inventor Christian, and his side-kick Toby.

We had the chance to talk to Christian, the inventor of Chessplus.

  • 0:30 - Who are you?
  • 4:09 - How did you come up with Chessplus, and what is this game about?
  • 10:20 - How come the game looks so well-designed?
  • 13:10 - What does GM Max Illingworth have to do with the game?
  • 17:20 - Where to buy it?
  • 18:24 - How long will the shipping take?

And how I met his twelve-year-old colleague, Toby.

The Quick Rules:

Apply the rules of Chess, plus these new moves for a faster, more exciting and addictive game:

  1. Combined pieces using traditional moves.
  2. Combined pieces can move as either piece.
  3. Combined pieces can Split.
  4. Combined pieces can Promote.

How It Works:

  • Move a Bishop onto a Pawn, the Combined Bishop/Pawn can move as a Bishop or a Pawn.
  • For a Super Piece combine a Queen and a Knight and move as a Queen or a Knight.
  • Fast Promotions - Move a Combined piece containing a Pawn to the far side and you have an Extra Queen.
  • Watch Out! If your combined piece is taken you lose 2 regular pieces.
  • And Yes! Combined pieces can split at anytime, simply move either piece away individually.

Links:

Arne Kaehler, a creative mind who is passionate about board games in general, was born in Hamburg and learned to play chess at a young age. By teaching chess to youth teams and creating chess-related videos on YouTube, Arne was able to expand this passion and has even created an online course for anyone who wants to learn how to play chess. Arne writes for the English and German news sites, but focuses mainly on content for the ChessBase media channels.

Discuss

Rules for reader comments

 
 

Not registered yet? Register