"GOOD, BAD or Indifferent. I WANT TO HEAR WHAT YOU HAVE TO SAY!!!" - Johnny M Wahl
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From Australia
Hi Johnny,
The game is great and most fun when 4 play.
When you have 4 then differences in playing strengths don’t mean as much as in conventional chess.
For instance 1 very strong player can really be challenged and often beaten by the 3 weaker players.
This makes it enjoyable for all because the weaker players are not bored and discouraged by constant losses and the stronger player enjoys the challenge of trying to fight off 3 armies at the same time!
It’s a really great social game when most of your friends are not serious chess players.
This is not say that people should not or will not get serious about this wonderful chess variant. I’m sure many players will!
Well done on producing such an enjoyable variant to conventional chess.
All the Best,
Spiro Harris
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"As a professional chess instructor my primary area of focus is to encourage critical thinking skills with an emphasis on equating multiple variables and outcomes. Mr. Johnny Wahl has managed to marry these dynamics in a seamless format that can be enjoyed for hours, the variations to the game are limitless!"
-Coach Ian Atkins, Founder of the Kings and Queens School of Chessology in Atlanta GA
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Corey Acor
Photo by Betsy Dynako
Corey Acor
My highest rating was 2301 as of the 2008 USCF listings and I have won several National Scholastic championships including individual grade (10th) and blitz and bughouse side events. I have won the state scholastic championship for my section and I also won the Florida Class Championship a few years ago. I am a National Master and a life master now and I am close to getting the FIDE Master title on the international circuit.
What he said about my game
"The box is very nice. I can say that the game certainly is different from any form of chess I have ever encountered. Nonetheless it still offers the same great mental stimulation that I've grown to love from the origional game. I think this game is great and I look forward to playing it for years to come. --You can quote me"
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Elizabeth Gutierrez
"It’s great because not only have you taken out the mundane ‘stereotype’ stuffiness of Chess but you brought forward the strategy and competition of battle and conquer on the board. I love it!"
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art7683 from Ebay
"Hey , I haven't played it but I think it would be alot of fun ! We play 3 and 4 player chess on break at work and really enjoy it . I prefer the set your pieces anywhere idea that you have in your game thats why I would love to have it"
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From John McCallion - Games Magazine
I sent them a copy for a possible review. Here was his reply.
"Hi, Johnny! We have been extraordinarily busy with games lately. I have just returned from yet another of those interminable post-work sessions that take place after hours in my "real job" office. {omitted for privacy} have not made attention to detail and duty any easier. I met my wife Robin many years ago in a postal games club (way before the Internet days) which featured hundreds of different chess variants. Many of our battles are to be seen in David Pritchard's 'Encyclopedia of Chess Variants'. I have long since veered away from chess variants to the modern strategy games and, having parted company with my old comrades, it was not easy to find and gather them again. We are no strangers to 4-handed chess. Frankly, when another such thing comes our way, we tend to look at it with jaded eyes. There have been so many. However, we immediately applauded your *novel* rule permitting the pawn to change direction. It makes a pleasant change from those reinventors of the wheel, so to speak, who have simply added wings to each board and changed little else. Several experts to whom I sent the rules did wonder, also considering the enormous number of 4-player chess variants they have seen, how useful the novelty really was. Our games did allow me to reconnect with old friends I never met for a decade and that is appreciated. However, there simply was not sufficient novelty or enjoyment there to encourage us to mention it in the magazine. Space is very limited and, with an enormous number of games appearing each year, competition for a mention is becoming fiercer as the years go by. However, we wish you good luck with it - although we have found from bitter experience that "chessplayers" tend to believe that the 'FIDE' way of playing is based on sacred texts delivered by the Almighty to his disciples and anything else is a heresy not to be contemplated. Best wishes, and my apologies for the delay in getting back to you." - John McCallion