On Saturday the 25th of February Hans Böhm did a short interview with Frank Brugman about Chess IV. Hans questioned about the proportions of the board (exactly twice as big in size, four times as big in area) and the pieces(exactly four times as much as traditional). The pawns can move up to four squares (but not crossing the middle!) in the first move and after that up to two squares per move. Kings has also twice the range as standard. The audience reacted astonished when it saw the huge battlefield of Chess IV. This is way over the head of standard a regular chessplayer. Also the fact that there are four kings, which has to be taken out all of them to win, was a mind boggling paradigm shift! When Frank named the relative gaining of strength of the kings. Hans mentioned that the kings even could be an offensive help: The king can be a chaser instead of being chased. Frank confirmed this and mentioned that in the heat of the battle a king could even be sacrificied. Hans Böhm advised a more open startposition, because the development of the back rank pieces are quite slow due to the double pawn rank in front of them. In the Digital version of Chess IV the startposition is a setting: Initially all the pieces can be moved one or two ranks to the middle, giving the backrank pieces more manoeuvrability at the very first moment.
Frank Brugman(left) talking to Hans Böhm(right) in the Rietveld pavilion in Amersfoort
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