Game reviews
Sovereign Chess is a chess variant played on a 16x16 board, designed by Mark Bates, and published by his company Infinite Pi Games. In addition to complete, regular Chess sets of white and black pieces, Sovereign Chess uses ten other smaller armies of different colours, with eight pieces each. The white and black armies contain Kings that start on the board. The other armies also have Kings, which start off the board and can enter play with "regime change." The game contains sufficient additional pieces for the ash and slate armies to play a version of the game with four players. This review will concern only the two-player game.
The objective is to checkmate the enemy king, just as with regular Chess. The armies are initially set up around the outside of the 16x16 board, with a total of 112 pieces starting on the board. With few exceptions, the pieces move exactly as they do in regular Chess. The main difference in movement powers concerns the Pawns, which move orthogonally towards the centre of the board and capture diagonally, again towards the centre of the board (or at least not away from the centre of the board). Pawns promote upon reaching the central 4x4 squares. Another difference is that the Queen, Rook, and Bishop, can only move a maximum of eight squares.
The objective is to checkmate the enemy king, just as with regular Chess. The armies are initially set up around the outside of the 16x16 board, with a total of 112 pieces starting on the board. With few exceptions, the pieces move exactly as they do in regular Chess. The main difference in movement powers concerns the Pawns, which move orthogonally towards the centre of the board and capture diagonally, again towards the centre of the board (or at least not away from the centre of the board). Pawns promote upon reaching the central 4x4 squares. Another difference is that the Queen, Rook, and Bishop, can only move a maximum of eight squares.
You will notice that many of the squares on the board are coloured to match the colours of the armies. For each army colour, there are two squares of its colour on the board. If you move a piece you control onto one of these squares, you now control the army of matching colour. Initially, White will control only the white pieces, and Black only the black pieces. However, sooner or later you will be able to move one of more of your pieces onto coloured squares to control the corresponding armies. If you control a given army, say Red, and a red piece subsequently moves to a green control-square, then you now also control the Green army. In other words, you can establish chains of control through various armies. Only pieces that are controlled by your opponent can be captured, not pieces that are still neutral. Note the special rule that only one of the two squares of a given colour can be occupied at any one time, so disputes over control of a given army can never arise.
A great original feature of Sovereign Chess is the way that the different armies can be controlled first by one player and then the other player as occupation of the coloured control-squares changes. A second outstanding feature of Sovereign Chess is its concept of "regime change." A white Pawn reaching the promotion zone, say, can promote to any other white piece, including the King. In this case, the existing white King is removed from the board and repositioned for the promoted Pawn. A second, more radical kind of regime change is promotion of a Pawn to a King from another army that you control, say Red. In this case, the red King replaces the red Pawn and the White King is removed from the board; the red King is the piece now that your opponent must checkmate! In the third kind of regime change, you simply replace your white King, say, wherever it is, with the King from any other army you control. For these second and third kinds of regime change, where the King changes colour, the Sovereign Chess set includes Kings for each colour of army, even though only the white and black Kings begin on the board at the start of the game.
You are going to need allies to defeat your opponent, and so you must occupy coloured squares to get control of other armies. Certain of the coloured squares are within easy reach, and perhaps the opening phase of any game of Sovereign Chess will be to grab several other armies in order to launch an attack on the opponent. Which armies should you aim for? To start, armies that are close to your opponent's position are obvious targets. A strategy of hierarchical chain control through multiple armies may be risky. If this chain is disrupted, you may lose control of several armies at once. A more robust strategy is for White, say, to control a number of different armies with white pieces, rather than with a chain of differently coloured pieces.
A most interesting feature of the game is regime change, where the King, potentially, can drift between different colours, and thereby evade an attack. However, the two types of regime change involving Pawn promotion will tend to give you an exposed King in the centre of the board, perhaps not a good escape route. On the other hand, the switching of your King for a King of a different colour does not move the King, may leave the King exposed, and may not be much of a defence. I had thought that perhaps regime change would come into its own with few pieces left on the board, and there might be sharp and interesting endgame situations involving regime change. According to the designer, however, endgame positions with few pieces left are quite rare, because there are simply so many Sovereign Chess pieces on the board to start with, and because decisive attacks can develop fairly quickly.
It is a pity that this fascinating aspect of Sovereign Chess, regime change, occurs relatively rarely, and may not even offer the King a good escape. Maybe another variant, based on the same concept of hierarchical control of multiple armies, could bring regime change more to the fore. Sovereign Chess is certainly a fun and original game, but I wonder if there is a smaller game where its key features are highlighted, the ability specifically for the King to float between different colours?
The designer has been working on a smaller form of Sovereign Chess, Sovereign Chess Arena, that is played on a 12x12 board, with the full complement of white and black pieces, but with only six pieces in each of eight coloured sets. Otherwise, the game plays the same. Arena is perhaps a faster and tighter game, although I have insufficient experience either of full Sovereign Chess or its Arena sibling to judge between the two.
A great original feature of Sovereign Chess is the way that the different armies can be controlled first by one player and then the other player as occupation of the coloured control-squares changes. A second outstanding feature of Sovereign Chess is its concept of "regime change." A white Pawn reaching the promotion zone, say, can promote to any other white piece, including the King. In this case, the existing white King is removed from the board and repositioned for the promoted Pawn. A second, more radical kind of regime change is promotion of a Pawn to a King from another army that you control, say Red. In this case, the red King replaces the red Pawn and the White King is removed from the board; the red King is the piece now that your opponent must checkmate! In the third kind of regime change, you simply replace your white King, say, wherever it is, with the King from any other army you control. For these second and third kinds of regime change, where the King changes colour, the Sovereign Chess set includes Kings for each colour of army, even though only the white and black Kings begin on the board at the start of the game.
You are going to need allies to defeat your opponent, and so you must occupy coloured squares to get control of other armies. Certain of the coloured squares are within easy reach, and perhaps the opening phase of any game of Sovereign Chess will be to grab several other armies in order to launch an attack on the opponent. Which armies should you aim for? To start, armies that are close to your opponent's position are obvious targets. A strategy of hierarchical chain control through multiple armies may be risky. If this chain is disrupted, you may lose control of several armies at once. A more robust strategy is for White, say, to control a number of different armies with white pieces, rather than with a chain of differently coloured pieces.
A most interesting feature of the game is regime change, where the King, potentially, can drift between different colours, and thereby evade an attack. However, the two types of regime change involving Pawn promotion will tend to give you an exposed King in the centre of the board, perhaps not a good escape route. On the other hand, the switching of your King for a King of a different colour does not move the King, may leave the King exposed, and may not be much of a defence. I had thought that perhaps regime change would come into its own with few pieces left on the board, and there might be sharp and interesting endgame situations involving regime change. According to the designer, however, endgame positions with few pieces left are quite rare, because there are simply so many Sovereign Chess pieces on the board to start with, and because decisive attacks can develop fairly quickly.
It is a pity that this fascinating aspect of Sovereign Chess, regime change, occurs relatively rarely, and may not even offer the King a good escape. Maybe another variant, based on the same concept of hierarchical control of multiple armies, could bring regime change more to the fore. Sovereign Chess is certainly a fun and original game, but I wonder if there is a smaller game where its key features are highlighted, the ability specifically for the King to float between different colours?
The designer has been working on a smaller form of Sovereign Chess, Sovereign Chess Arena, that is played on a 12x12 board, with the full complement of white and black pieces, but with only six pieces in each of eight coloured sets. Otherwise, the game plays the same. Arena is perhaps a faster and tighter game, although I have insufficient experience either of full Sovereign Chess or its Arena sibling to judge between the two.
While Sovereign Chess is based on the moves of the Chess pieces, and shares Chess's goal of checkmate, it is quite a different game. Of course, many chess variants exist, played with different-sized boards, with different pieces having varied powers, but Sovereign Chess is not such a simplistic chess variant. The collection of armies, the manner of their control, and the rules for regime change put Sovereign Chess into a different class. Hexagonal Chess and the various forms of three-dimensional chess change the geometry of the board and are likewise not simplistic variants of chess. Shogi also revolutionized chess with the introduction of the drop, permitting captured pieces to change sides and re-enter play. The collection of armies in Sovereign Chess, and the possibility of regime change, mean that Sovereign Chess extends chess in a manner comparable to the drop in Shogi. The significance of Sovereign Chess is that it brings something different to the chess variant scene and suggests an entirely new category of game.
Sovereign Chess is a large, fun chess variant. Control and management of a collection of armies brings something genuinely original. The large board and collection of different armies might be confusing at first, and the game definitely has a learning curve. However, Sovereign Chess is a significant addition to the large genre of chess variants. Sovereign Chess Arena is not yet commercially available, but the original, large game is available here. I highly recommend Sovereign Chess.
Lastly, here are two Sovereign Chess puzzles, kindly provided by David Vander Laan, designer of Raft & Scupper, reviewed in AG22. ◾️
Sovereign Chess is a large, fun chess variant. Control and management of a collection of armies brings something genuinely original. The large board and collection of different armies might be confusing at first, and the game definitely has a learning curve. However, Sovereign Chess is a significant addition to the large genre of chess variants. Sovereign Chess Arena is not yet commercially available, but the original, large game is available here. I highly recommend Sovereign Chess.
Lastly, here are two Sovereign Chess puzzles, kindly provided by David Vander Laan, designer of Raft & Scupper, reviewed in AG22. ◾️
The solutions are here.