Chess Variants

Here are details of two rare pamphlets on chess variants.

1. Game of Eagle Chess Introduced and Published by Henry Tichauer. 

Front cover

The title page states: Invented by Herbert Henry Tichauer; (Patent applied for); Copyright 1943 by Herbert Henry Tichauer, Oxford.

Title page

www.worldcat.org lists a pamphlet held by the Buffalo and Erie County Public Library with the title Game of eagle-chess by Henry Tichauer, published in Buffalo, N.Y. 1941. This has 7 unnumbered pages with a height of 23cm. My pamphlet also has 7 unnumbered pages (plus the title page) with a height of 21 cm., however, this is almost certainly the same publication. No copies are recorded at either the Cleveland Public Library or the Bibliotheca van der Linde-Niemeijeriana at The Hague.

Eagle Chess is played on a 10 x 10 board with the addition of two new pieces: the Eagle, which moves one square in a straight line, either horizontally or vertically, and two squares diagonally, for example from e3 to g6 or e3 to h1; and the Grand-Bishop which can move either as a knight or as a bishop. From a central square the Grand-Bishop can move in any of 12 directions and is therefore more powerful than a Queen.

Page [6]

This variant is not recorded in The Classified Encyclopedia of Chess Variants by D.B Pritchard, completed, edited and published by John Beasley, Harpenden 2007. This book is available online at  www.jsbeasley.co.uk

2. Crompton's Chess; Double Sided Partnership Chess by George Crompton. 

Front cover

This was printed in the United States of America in 1960 and page [4] gives the author's address as 54 Mill Street, Framingham, Massachusetts, U.S.A. 

Inside front cover

This pamphlet is recorded on pages 313/314 of the aforementioned Classified Encyclopedia of Chess Variants where the peculiarities of this four-player game are explained.

Page [1]

I can find no record of this pamphlet, of 4 unnumbered pages, in any library catalogue although it is recorded on page 171 of the Catalog of Copyright Entries Third Series January-June 1960 which is available for viewing at Google Books. 

                                       © Michael Clapham 2016