Abstract:
A board for playing games, especially strategy games and in particular variants on the game of chess, which is rotationally asymmetric in orders greater than 2, such that different players have differently sized “home” playing areas. The main embodiment is a four player board, with variants which have additional diagonals to allow attacking routes against players adjacent to each other. A number of rule variants for four player chess are disclosed.

Description:
BACKGROUND 
       [0001]    The game of chess has been possibly the most popular game in the world for more than a thousand years. Variants of the game have been played in India and China long before the development of the modern game as we know it. 
         [0002]    One of the reasons for the games enduring popularity is its adaption from earlier forms. The precursor to modern chess “Chaturanga” was a very slow game, suitable for the slow pace of life of the medieval world, but unattractive to the modern mind. Rule changes made in fifteenth century Italy revitalized the game and maintained its popularity in a new era. 
         [0003]    Much more recently, three and four player versions of chess have appeared. These have introduced a more social element to the games. Now interactions between the competitors involve more than just pitting their wits against each other. Alliances, either permanent or shifting become a part of the strategic make-up of the game. Players may be vulnerable if pieces are exchanged with one of their opponents, in case it makes them vulnerable if alliances shift. Great care is needed in the design of the game to ensure fairness and to ensure a dynamic game. It is perhaps for these reasons that the multiplayer versions have not achieved the popularity of the two player game. 
         [0004]    The current invention is just such a way of ensuring fairness and a dynamic game, by providing asymmetry between opposing players and additional lines of attack between adjacent players. Just as the rule changes between Chaturanga and modern chess revitalized the two player game, it is proposed that the variants on the board and rules herein described will revitalize the four player game. 
       SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
       [0005]    Accordingly, in a first aspect of the invention, the present invention provides a board for playing games, the board comprising a plurality of playing areas, each playing area located on a point of a grid, wherein the grid is rotationally asymmetric in order greater than two. 
         [0006]    Preferably, the points of the grid are substantially regularly spaced in two dimensions. 
         [0007]    Preferably, the playing areas are square. 
         [0008]    Preferably, the playing areas are alternately coloured black and white in chequered fashion. 
         [0009]    Preferably the board comprises a substantially rectangular central section. 
         [0010]    Preferably the board comprises at least one line of playing areas appended to at least one edge of the central section. 
         [0011]    Preferably the board comprises a plurality of lines of playing areas appended to each edge of the board. 
         [0012]    Preferably each appended line of playing areas comprises the same number of playing areas as there are present in an edge row of the central area to which it is appended. 
         [0013]    Preferably the board comprises a plurality of playing areas located adjacent to the appended rows. 
         [0014]    In another aspect, the invention provides a game played using a board as claimed in any previous claim, played by a plurality of players. 
         [0015]    Preferably the game uses at least one set of conventional chess pieces. 
         [0016]    Preferably the conventional chess pieces are initially placed in the appended lines of playing areas. 
         [0017]    Preferably the initial arrangement of the pieces is the same as in conventional chess. 
         [0018]    Optionally the initial arrangement of the pieces follows the procedure of Fischer random chess. 
         [0019]    Preferably the game comprises four sets of conventional chess pieces. 
         [0020]    Preferably the pieces are moved as in conventional chess. 
         [0021]    More preferably the pieces are moved as in conventional chess, except that a knight may move three playing areas in a first direction and then one square laterally or 1 square in a first direction and three squares laterally as well as the conventional knight move. 
         [0022]    Yet more preferably the pieces are moved as in conventional chess, except that a pawn may be moved three squares forward on its initial move by at least one of the players. 
         [0023]    Yet more preferably the pieces are moved as in conventional chess, except that the move of a pawn into one of the four central playing areas allows the promotion of said pawn to one of a Queen, rook, knight or bishop. 
         [0024]    Preferably the board includes a communications link. 
         [0025]    Preferably the board includes means to electronically record a move. 
         [0026]    Preferably the means to record a move comprises a touch sensitive board. 
         [0027]    Preferably the communications link is the internet. 
     
    
     
       DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES 
         [0028]    The above and other aspects of the invention will now be described by way of example only, with reference to the following drawings: 
           [0029]      FIG. 1  shows a playing board for a four player chess game according to the prior art. 
           [0030]      FIG. 2  shows the underlying grid for such a board. 
           [0031]      FIG. 3  ( a ) shows a grid with rotational symmetry of order 4. 
           [0032]      FIG. 3  ( b ) shows a grid with rotational symmetry of order 2, but lacking symmetry of order 4. 
           [0033]      FIG. 4  shows a first option for initial placement of the pieces according to the prior art. 
           [0034]      FIG. 5  shows an alternative option for initial placement of the pieces according to the prior art. 
           [0035]      FIG. 6  illustrates a problem with the arrangement in  FIG. 4   
           [0036]      FIG. 7  illustrates a problem with the arrangement in  FIG. 5 . 
           [0037]      FIG. 8  shows a solution to the problem of opposition of Queens and Bishops according to the prior art 
           [0038]      FIG. 9  illustrates a problem which the solution of  FIG. 6  causes. 
           [0039]      FIG. 10  illustrates a playing board according to a first embodiment of the invention. 
           [0040]      FIG. 11  illustrates the board from  FIG. 9  broken up to clearly see the playing areas. 
           [0041]      FIG. 12  illustrates the board from  FIG. 9  with the pieces in their initial positions. 
           [0042]      FIG. 13  illustrates a board according to a second embodiment of the invention. 
           [0043]      FIG. 14  illustrates a board according to a third embodiment of the invention. 
           [0044]      FIG. 15  illustrates a board according to a fourth embodiment of the invention. 
           [0045]      FIG. 16  illustrates a board according to a fifth embodiment of the invention. 
       
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
       [0046]    In its broadest scope, the present invention provides a board for playing games which is rotationally asymmetric in order greater than two. The board is divided into playing areas on which pieces may stand and move to and from in the course of the game. 
         [0047]      FIG. 1  shows a playing board  100  for a four player chess game according to the prior art. 
         [0048]    The board comprises alternating black and white squares, located on points of a regular grid.  FIG. 2  shows the underlying grid  200 . An object is said to have rotational symmetry of order n, if it can be rotated 360°/n without change to the appearance of the object. Examples of objects with rotational symmetry of order two  300  and four  400  are shown in  FIGS. 3(   a ) and  3  ( b ) respectively. The respective positions  301 ,  401  after a rotation of 90° are shown respectively. The grid in  FIG. 2  therefore has rotational symmetric of order four, as it may be rotated 90° without change. 
         [0049]    A problem exists with the arrangement of the board in  FIG. 1 . This is illustrated in  FIGS. 4 and 5 .  FIGS. 4 and 5  illustrate two different options for the initial positions of the kings  401 ,  501  and queens  402 ,  502 . The standard notation of K for King, Q for Queen, R for Rook, B for Bishop, N for Knight and P for pawn are used. In  FIG. 4  the Queens are positioned to the left and in  FIG. 5  the Queens and Kings are positioned so that Queens face Kings across the length of the board. 
         [0050]    The majority of games of chess between players of a good standard began with the double move of either the pawn in front of the King or the pawn in front of the Queen. Either of these moves increases control of the strategically important centre of the board and allows the development of a bishop and the Queen. Ideally, both central pawns are quickly advanced. 
         [0051]      FIG. 6  shows the initial arrangement as in  FIG. 4  after Player A makes a first move  601 . Player B&#39;s options are now limited by the “pin”  602  on the pawn in front of his Queen. In chess, a piece is said to be pinned if it is unable to move because to do so would expose a more valuable piece to attack. If the first piece is moved, it may result in the capture of the more valuable piece or if the more valuable piece were the King, then the move would expose the King to check and hence the move would be illegal.  FIG. 7  shows the initial arrangement of pieces as shown in  FIG. 5 . In  FIG. 7 , there is the problem of an early opposition of queens  701 , for example, which may result in early exchanges of queens. If this happens to all the queens, there is a risk of a sterile and lifeless game. If only one set are exchanged, two of the four players will be at an immediate disadvantage compared with the other two, particularly if an “all-play-all” game is being played. The bishops opposing each other also creates similar problems. 
         [0052]    One solution to this would be to extend the “home” areas  801  and drop the pieces back further away from each other. This solution is illustrated in  FIG. 8 . However, this has the problem that now the game starts far more slowly as the armies take a large number of moves to move into position. In particular, there is little way in which players immediately adjacent to each other can attack each other early in the game. The bishops are severely limited by the shortening of their diagonals. This problem is shown in  FIG. 9 , which illustrates the shortening of the diagonals  901 . 
         [0053]    One solution to this problem would be to use an enlarged square board as disclosed in US2006/0279042. This type of board is illustrated in  FIG. 10 . This however introduces a further problem in that “castling”, the traditional means of achieving King safety, a factor of paramount importance in chess strategy, would still leave the Kings open and vulnerable. This would be likely to encourage players to be overly defensive in their approach, leading to a slow and dull game. 
         [0054]    In one aspect of the invention there is provided a rotationally asymmetric board, with short and long sides. This aspect of the invention addresses the problem of the early opposition of Queens and bishops. 
         [0055]    In a second aspect of the invention there is provided additional playing areas  1101  placed between the adjacent home areas to provide additional diagonals for early attack between adjacent players without the increased exposure of the Kings inherent in the solution in  FIG. 11 . 
         [0056]    Embodiments of the invention will now be described with reference to  FIG. 11 .  FIG. 11  shows a playing board according to the invention. A plurality of playing areas are provided, square in shape and alternating black and white as in a conventional chess board.  FIG. 12  shows a view of  FIG. 11  with the sections separated so as to see the parts of the board clearly. These playing areas are arranged into sections of the board as follows: a central section comprising a conventional 8×8 chess board  1201 , two 8×5 sections  1202  opposite each other on the short sides of the board and two 8×6 sections  1203  opposite each other on the long sides of the board. Additional playing areas  1204  are provided in sections in the corners between the 8×6 and 8×5 sections. It would be evident to the person skilled in the art that the number of playing areas (squares) in each of the sections may be varied. 
         [0057]    In an embodiment, the board may be used with four sets of conventional chess pieces, usually each of a different colour. Alternatively, it may be used with other pieces, such as draughts pieces, Chinese chess or other variants. Where conventional chess pieces are used, then the starting positions of the pieces are located on the board as shown in  FIG. 13 . The person skilled in the art would appreciate that the starting positions of the pieces are not fixed and variants such as “Fischer random chess” may be used. 
         [0058]    In an embodiment, the standard rules of chess are used. In an alternative embodiment, the knight may move 3 squares in any direction followed by a movement of a single square in a direction perpendicular to the first direction of movement. In a further embodiment, the initial pawn move may be three squares. In yet another embodiment, pawn promotion may take place in the central four squares of the board. The person skilled in the art will appreciate that other variants are possible in the movement of the pieces, such as those in the original Indian form of the game “Chaturanga” or any variant thereof. 
         [0059]    The person skilled in the art will appreciate that there are multiple arrangements of the rotationally asymmetric board which may be used. Four playing chess boards according to further embodiments of the invention are shown in  FIGS. 14-15 . 
         [0060]    The skilled person will also readily see that the rotationally asymmetric board according to the invention affords itself easily to other variants of the game. The invention is not limited to versions of the game in which there are equal numbers of pieces for each player.  FIG. 16  shows a variant which allows a single player to take on 3 opponents. The single player has the larger “home” area  1601 , to allow the outnumbered player to possess more playing pieces. 
         [0061]    It is contemplated that the board provides a component of a gaming system in which a communications link is provided to the board. The board may include means to electronically record a move, for example the means to record a move may comprise a touch sensitive board although other suitable means are also contemplated. The communication means may comprise the internet or other suitable means.