that can effect collusion at the
right time. And it is difficult to
weigh whether to hold one's pawns
back to defend the Border or push them forward in hopes of supplan-ting major pieces.
Devising an effective strategy in a game of c-chess requires analyzing how movement of the pieces from sector to sector will alter both their potency as attackers and vulnerability as targets. This interdependence between piece and multi-sector designation re-defines the spatial dynamics of the classical progenitor, so much so that chess
players might initially view c-chess as un-chesslike.
Indeed, along the continuum of chess variants, c-chess occupies a place far from standard chess:
The game lacks simplicity of form
and the terrain of the board's rectangle is difficult to traverse, especially with the bishop. In ad-dition, the three sectors of the
board essentially triple the number of pieces found in most variants. These novelties, along with the
spy, make the game seem over-laden with structural content. One must mount a comparatively steep learning curve before playing. And, finally, the rules having been learned, each move puts the player at the disorienting cross-roads of the game's multiple dimensions. In the end, what a player experienc-es when choosing one move among possible others is the key distin-guishing feature of Cypher Chess
when set side-by-side with other board games of strategy.*
