While it’s a classic strategy game loved by loads of very smart people I’ve known over the years, I can’t say I’ve ever really gotten a taste for Chess. Perhaps it’s the ADHD talking, but in general I think I’m just too impatient for it, even if I do understand it. Granted, way back in the day the classic Battle Chess caught my eye, at least adding a little bit of carnage to the game to liven things up, but on the whole it has never been my thing. 

Enter Chessarama, a game with some ambitious ideas to take chess concepts and marry them to a variety of both puzzle and strategic scenarios that absolutely feel fresh and unique. On the puzzle side things are a little more simple, and I have seen some titles tap into this idea in limited numbers before. Leveraging the movement rules of specific pieces you’ll need to work through puzzles in a variety of formats, trying to minimize your number of moves while completing your objectives. These are at least presented reasonably well, and they do serve as a fair warm-up for the more strategic end of the board.

To me, the strategy modes are really where the game shines and takes this classic board game to the next level. By applying different concepts to the game, like soccer and others, you get variations that certainly play similarly to Chess on the whole, but introduce new rules to add some complications and flair. For instance, in Soccer Chess you aren’t able to attack and take any piece that doesn’t have the ball, but are able to pass it around, and then ultimately try to get into position to successfully make a shot on goal, with that taking the place of a traditional Checkmate. The alterations to the mix may be relatively small, and don’t always seem terribly consequential, but they do succeed in making you look at the classic in a new light. 

Of course, there are more traditional matches offered as well, but in my mind that’s just along for the ride, the interest lies with the innovations. While I wouldn’t argue that there’s only so much you can alter a game like this, and that ultimately being bound by mostly the same rules doesn’t allow play to stray too far from its classic roots, I still applaud the effort. Especially since I’m not a big fan of the game, I was pleasantly surprised at how well the different modes and means of challenges here caught my interest. It still may be a somewhat niche concept, but it helps that it is executed quite nicely.