Amusement devices: games – Board games – pieces – or boards therefor – Piece moves over board having pattern
Reexamination Certificate
2000-03-14
2001-07-17
Layno, Benjamin H. (Department: 3711)
Amusement devices: games
Board games, pieces, or boards therefor
Piece moves over board having pattern
C273S255000, C273S262000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06260848
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Our invention relates to an article of manufacture which functions as a modified chess gameboard with associated chess pieces. More particularly, our invention relates to improvements to a chess-like game for two, three or four individuals. There are four separate full armies with no less than two but not more than four individuals playing chess simultaneously against each other.
The conventional chess game requires two chess players, each player being in control of one separate army. The term ‘army’ is well known in the art among those skilled in the game of chess. The conventional game is played on a square gameboard which is divided into thirty two light and thirty-two dark squares. These squares are all of equal size and arranged to alternate in a checkered pattern. Thirty two chess pieces are separated into two equal army sets by color, conventionally, black and white. The game is played in accordance with the well known conventional rules.
Others have modified the above conventional game to accommodate more players or simplify the rules. U.S. Pat. No. 4,940,241 (Faraci, Jr.) comprises a three player chess-like game with a gameboard shaped as an equilateral triangle.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,257,787 (Miccio) describes a chess-like game which comprises a lesser number of vertical and horizontal rows on the gameboard. Miccio also has a reduced number of playing pieces.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,829,099 (Lucero) discloses a gameboard for a game of chess with four players There is a conventional gameboard and each player controls one-half of an army.
Our invention is superior in that the experienced player will find our four complete set approach more challenging and intricate. Accordingly, one object of our present invention is to raise the technical and intellectual requirements above that of conventional two player/two army chess. In the preferred approach, one player pits himself or herself simultaneously against three individual opponents, each with a full army. An individual player wins by checkmating the Kings of the other three armies.
The preferred embodiment of our invention comprises a square game board. This gameboard, in turn, comprises equal numbers of smaller seventy-two dark and seventy-two light equal sized squares. These squares alternate in a checkered light and dark pattern, which in the preferred embodiment are black and white.
The gameboard also comprises a complete border surrounding the entire periphery of the checkered area. The border, in turn, comprises designation marks which dictate forward movements of pawns, a playing piece well known in the art of playing conventional chess.
The physical embodiments of gamepieces of our invention are similar to those of conventional chess, with the exception of minor physical modifications to the pawns. These gamepieces generally move similarly to those of conventional two player and two army chess. However, the number and movements of several gamepieces differ from conventional chess, see infra. Pawns in our improved game move forward on the modified gameboard in two different forward directions.
BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Our invention comprises a game performed with moveable chess-like pieces on a flat gameboard. More particularly, our invention comprises a modified chesslike game for two, three, or four independent participants. Each army of gamepieces, as in conventional chess, has its own chronological opportunity to move along the gameboard. Our present invention elevates the requirements for participant expertise above that of conventional two participant/two army chess. See
FIG. 3
In addition to the preferred embodiment described herein, two participants can play our invention using modified methodology: Each participant controls two (2) separate opposing armies along the diagonal axis of the gameboard. See FIG.
3
.
With three participants, one participant controls two separate opponent armies along the diagonal axis of the gameboard. This last approach initially appears inequitable, because (i) one of three participants controls two opponent armies and (ii) the other two participants control only one opponent army each. However, this is not necessarily the case: the single participant controlling two armies are opposed by the other two participants(which control two armies altogether).
See FIG.
4
. Once again, in this variation from the preferred embodiment, each army has its own chronological opportunity to move along the gameboard. Each army can be opposed by another army under certain conditions, which are described in detail below.
Our preferred embodiment is directed to a chesslike game for four individual participants in the preferred embodiment. Our invention comprises our novel modified army components, methodology and gameboard,. In the most modest approach, each participant simultaneously challenges the others by moving his or her own separate full army. In the preferred embodiment, each participant initially begins simultaneously against three individual opponents. See
FIG. 5. A
participant ultimately prevails by capturing and removing from the game, e.g., checkmating the kings of all three opponents.
Our modified chess-like game is comprised of a square game board composed of one hundred and forty-four smaller squares, of equal number, of a dark and a light color. These squares, smaller in dimension than the gameboard, and all of the same dimension, alternate in a checkered pattern. In the preferred embodiment the two colors of the two series of smaller squares are black and white.
Along the border of the gameboard there are designation marks relating to pawns, a gamepiece well known among chess enthusiasts. There are sixty-four conventional and modified gamepieces, which are divided into four separate armies. Each army comprises gamepieces of the same color, but which are unique from the other armies. These colors of gamepieces of each army in the preferred embodiment are red, black, white and yellow. However, one can use other colors or designs.
Our invention differs in part from conventional chess because: (i) the number of gamepieces in each of the four armies differs from conventional chess; and (ii) pawns in our modified invention are of three physical variations and move forward in two different directions.
Our invention comprises a modified methodology with respect to rules by which our invention is played. These rules give participants the option to form an “alliances between originally opposing armies. No more than two participants can temporarily and consensually join two (2) armies to initiate or repel attacks. On the other hand, 'dissolution, of an alliance provides protection for other participants. It also ensures that a single participant will ultimately prevail because allied armies revert to status as opposing armies.
Our novel rules also allow a King, a gamepiece well known in the art, to have certain logistical advantages under special conditions in our invention. For example, a King can move into checked positions to escape “checkmate” or to capture an opposing gamepiece.
Our invention's methodology also allows participants to overtake entire opposing armies and create what is known as a ‘great army.’ With a ‘great army’ a participant uses a defeated army, in addition to his original army, against the remaining opposing participants.
It is therefore an object of our invention to create a modified chess-like game which comprises four full armies and in which there may be two, three or four participants.
It is also an object of our invention to create a modified gameboard on which there are designation marks indicating forward pawn movement and direction.
It is also an object of our invention to create a gameboard comprising small squares, a border along the entire perimeter of the gameboard and designation markers further comprising that border.
It is a further object of our invention to create a methodology in which an army can consensually form an alliance with another participant's army.
It is a further object of our invention to pro
Tachkov Helen
Tachkov Ilian
Tachkov Spaska
Layno Benjamin H.
Mendiratta V K
Naumann, Esq. Adrienne B.
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