Pyramid Magazine
August 1998
Paul Arden Lidberg
USA

The Game You Already Know How to Play
Designed by Mark Alan Osterhaus, Ellen Winter, Max Osterhaus
Published by Out of the Box Games

Take Chess, the classic game that all of us in gaming grew up playing. Add in some whimsical art by industry veteran (and Murphy's Rules artist) John Kovalic. Stir in a healthy dose of playing cards. Mix thoroughly. What you get is Bosworth,"The Game You Already Know How to Play."

The basics of Bosworth are chess. There are the same number of pieces as regular chess (represented with cards), and they move the same way (by and large) as in regular chess. Where the game differs is in the board, and in the set up.

The board is a six by six grid, (chess is normally eight by eight). The four corner spaces are not used in play at all. You place four of the cards on your end of the board and go from there. During the course of the game, you eventually have to place your King. Once your king is captured (there is no check in this game), you have lost. Some of the moves from chess don't happen in this game. I'd already mentioned that there is no check (mostly because the board is so small it would make it extremely difficult to move). There is also no en passant or castling.

The game plays very quickly. At Origins, the demos they ran went very quickly, and all involved appeared to be having a good time. They ran quite a few people through those demos, and I'd suspect the majority of them picked up the game.

The artwork of the game is done by John Kovalic, and appears to be based on the characters from his strip and now comic book "Dork Tower." Fans of the strip will appreciate the cameo appearance, and non-fans will not be lost by this use of the characters.

This little gem is addictive, in that you are always looking for that killer strategy (as in traditional chess). The place where that falls apart, however, is that the number of pieces on the board at any given time is fairly limited, and you never know when the opposing player will commit his King into play. This is the kind of thing that keeps people coming back to play again and again.

All in all, I think this game is a wonderful piece of work. The graphics are pleasant and amusing, and the printing quality is top-notch. While the game is a little pricey, I think this is off-set by its addictive nature.

This is one of those games that won't be collecting dust in your closet.

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