Chess Revised

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 552, 3 January 1929, Page 6

Chess Revised

Aucklanders iry Proposed New Game

MORE MEN, MORE ROOM As though refuting the general idea that chess players are the most conservative of men, two Auckland players have already experimented with the new rules suggested immediately before Christmas by Capablanca, a former world’s champion. Capablanca has startled the chess players of the world by proposing that drastic alterations be made to the rules of the ancient game, with a view to speeding up play and revitalising e great pastime. His suggestions are that there

should be more men and more space on the board. He proposes that the board should be 10 squares by 3 0 instead of the general eight by eight. Two extra pawns would be used on each side to fill half the resultinggaps, and two new major pieces would have to be created to occupy the remaining’ vacant squares. One" of the new pieces! would combine thei functions of a bishop l and a knight, and the I other those of a rook 1 and a knight. i Mr. L. Adams and

Mr. F. C. Evven, both well-known Auckland chess players, decided to try the champion’s suggestion. Mr. Ewen had plaster pieces made to his own design to represent the unusual major pieces. The new men were called tentatively, the prince and the duke. The required board was made, and, on Monday evening, the two experimenters played three games under what they considered to be tne rules Capablanca bad proposed. The games took about half an hour each to play, and provided'some extraordinary situations. Mr. Ewen intends to devote some attention to the new chess, and considers it to have great possibilities. About its success in New Zealand lie is not so sanguine. As has been mentioned, chess players have the reputation of being ultra-conservative, and the radical nature of the proposed reforms may cause their instant condemnation.