Last weekend the furtherfield team played the first game of 3 player chess at Irational's Collective Manouvers- Bristol Summer Games, Urban Olympics 2003

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Diary Entry 5/10/03

Felt remarkably fresh on waking up at 11.15. Wandered over to the Scout Hut, found no Laia and Vahida [RoToR] and so made our way to the Buttery, a very breezy waterside cafe, for our 3 player chess. After a coffee and a sausage, bacon and egg sandwich each, we got out the magnetic chess and played our first game. Neil [Jenkins] played the black higher pieces, I played the white higher pieces and Marc [Garrett] played the Pawns.

Neil tossed the first coin and heads gave Pawns the first move. The new game worked very well. It is sufficiently similar to conventional chess to obviate the need for complicated explanations but different enough to make the game less intimidating to wood pushers like myself. Marc entered into it with gay abandon, winning his first two tufts quite quickly. I was interested to notice that as a higher piece player there was a stronger imperative to stop the pawns than there was to immediately check the higher piece opponent.

We were joined in the middle of the game by employees of the Watershed. They displayed very little interest in our game and the first ever game of 3 player chess came to an abrupt end when I lost concentration listening to gossip about the previous night’s sexual exploits and my king was checked by Neil. The toss of the coin awarded the move to the pawns and I was shafted.

The new element of chance introduced by the spin of the dice creates the need for a whole new level of contingency planning on the part of the higher pieces. It seems that the pawn’s game is a more straight forward blocking game, preventing kings as well as other pieces being taken.

I wondered if this was the way the game would always go and when Ali and James and Robin from the Cube turned up and then shortly after them, Kate with Laia and Vahida, we decided to play another game.

This time we played with wooden pieces on Marc’s old and battered board so that more people could watch. We offered the other board out but it seemed that the other 'manouverers' were torn between our games and scating in ASDA. So instead, they watched and took some photos for us while they had their lunch.

They seemed to understand and enthusiasm for the game grew very quickly. Marc did his usual spirited job of making sure that everyone got the point and knew enough to get involved.

Again we stuck with the same sides. This time the White higher pieces and then the Black higher pieces took the first moves. This game was a more even battle with the higher pieces sometimes sacrificing their own strategic advantages to prevent the pawns from winning a tuft. The game was a lively one, with all the audience offering advice and asking questions. This second game ended in a pacifist victory for the Pawns. After a significantly longer struggle, Marc won his 4 tufts in a good run of luck on the toss of the coin.

I was pleasantly surprised and very relieved at how well the new game works- easy to learn and still maintains its drama.

We followed this game with a free for all combo of dice and chess with Laia and Vahida. They had three di with numbers, directions and pieces drawn on each face. We tried a wholesale rearrangement of pieces and rules for every game, just maintaining the moves for each piece.