Abstract Games Magazine
Issue 2 Summer 2000
Kerry Handscomb
Canada

Bosworth is a game played on a 6 x 6 board minus the corner squares with cards representing Chess pieces. Most of the play takes place in the central 4 x 4 region, the outer squares being "field camps" from which the players bring their cards into the game. The game can be played with 2,3, or 4 players. When two people play, which is the version we tested, they control field camps on opposite sides of the board.

Each player controls a deck of 16 cards which correspond exactly to the 16 Chess pieces. At the start of a game, each player puts a pawn on each of the four squares of his field camp. The remainder of each player's deck is shuffled and he draws a hand of four cards. On every turn a player must move a piece, fill any empty spaces in his field camp with cards from his hand, and then replenish his hand from the stack. The movement of the pieces follows Chess rules except that a pawn may also capture diagonally backwards. The objective of the game is to capture the opposing king(s).

The Bosworth game mechanism works well and it can give rise to interesting tactical situations. Strategically, hovever, it seemed to me that a player should always wait until the end before entering his king. Perhaps the game would be improved by stipulating that the starting position in the field camp should be a king and three pawns. I mentioned this to the inventor, who replied that choice of when to enter the king was the major strategic interest in Bosworth. I am not convinced, but in all honesty I have not played the game enough to pronounce definitely on this point.

In conclusion, Bosworth is quite a fun game to play, and the board and cards are nicely produced. The most interesting pint about the game for me, however, was the possibility of applying the same mechanism to other Chess-type games. How about Bosworth Shogi, for example, or Progressive Bosworth.

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