Check out Balbo's Chess, our featured variant for October, 2024.

This page is written by the game's inventor, Andy Lewicki.

Andy Lewicki sent us an email in June 2003:

Thank you so much for working on my CHELMA.

Below is another try, this time related to popular game Reversi (Othello). Similarity to Reversi is in this, that after each move situation on a board changes very rapidly and there maybe surprises in the last move. Game requires constant attention and there is much of calculating involved. Tactics and strategy seems to be very close to each other. There is only 8 moves on each site, so game is fast and never boring. On the other hand having so many pieces to choose from and so many squares to put them into action makes it very intellectual game. And fun at the same time. Please feel free to ask questions and make any suggestions.

Thanks for your hard work.

CHEVERSI

Setup

  1. Regular chess board.
  2. Each player has 8 pieces (two knights, two bishops, two rooks, king and a queen).
  3. Game starts with an empty board.

Play

  1. The first player puts one of his pieces on any square on this empty board.
  2. The second player can put any of his/her pieces only on a square which is attacked By the first player.
  3. The first player puts his/her piece on any square that is attacked by the second player .
  4. Games continue in this manner until all the pieces are put on a board.

End of the game

Players count all the squares that are attacked by their pieces.

Winner

Winner is the player who collected more squares attacked by his/her pieces.

Remarks

There is no check, bishops can be on any square and kings can be on adjacent squares to each other. In case the player has no squares to follow, he/she can put a piece anywhere on the board. Consider the situation: White King on G7 and black Bishop on H8. In the next move, white has no square to follow with his move, so may utilize above exception.

Tactics

Player should block opponent’s attacking power and at the same time attack as many squares as possible.

Variants

I - Player can put his/her piece not only at the last piece’s attacking square but on any square that is attacked by opponent’s piece.

II - Player can put his/her piece on any empty square on a board.

Strategy

It looks that heavy pieces should be used by the end of the game in order to avoid of being block prematurely and loose their attacking power.