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Page 1 of 2 If ever there were a strategy game that truly deserved a sequel, it would be Chess. The popular turn-based game of tactics and conquest remains the object of attention and affection throughout the strategy gaming world, and as any self-respecting game developer would tell you, that kind of success inevitably demands an encore. Leave it to En Passant Entertainment to do what needed to be done. This small French development house has been a forerunner in the Chess scenario editing community for more than a decade, best known for its Chess companion packs Bishop's Gambit and Queen's Knight Defense. But Chess II marks the company's first foray into original product design, and as such, the task at hand is daunting. Nevertheless, from the looks of things, En Passant has its moves all planned out. That's because En Passant president and founder Frederic Menard looked no further than his fellow Chess fans for his inspiration: "We're not about to pretend we know what's best for [the Chess players] - we decided that we would carefully listen to what they had to say as we made this sequel." This democratic design philosophy didn't emerge overnight, however. When development began back in 1996, Chess II was to be a real-time application of the familiar formula. However, Menard had second thoughts: "Our playable build was quite popular with the focus groups. But I noticed that the games ended too quickly. While the players still enjoyed to play the game, I realized that it would not hold interest as long as the original." Menard's vision took him and his team back to the drawing board, where they decided to approach the sequel from a new direction.
Chess II was feature-complete in 1997 and fully playable in 1998. Since then, En Passant has been busy conducting a closed beta test to ensure all the new features are functional, balanced, and most importantly, fun. Yet Menard is serious in his approach: "You cannot just do what you like with the sequel to Chess - you must honor its legacy and honor its fans. We were fortunate to pick up the license before anyone else, and we are not about to make light of it." To this extent, Menard and company have expanded the rules, and the scale, of Chess to a significant extent, but not so much that the game is unfamiliar to Chess players. "Our focus groups taught us one very important lesson: What Chess players want is more. They want to think more, they want longer games, they want more pieces, and more action." Perhaps that statement might explain why Menard abandoned the original design spec. Either way, it justifies one of Chess II's most significant enhancements, which is the increase in size of the playing field from 8 x 8 tiles, to 12 x 12.
The squire, which appears in the rear rank between the knight and the bishop, is a unit designed specifically "to address the inherent imbalance between the knight and the bishop." Chess players, Menard discovered, were quick to sacrifice their knights for their bishops, which he felt was a fundamental shortcoming of the original game, since the two units are designed to be counterparts. The squire, then, heightens the knight's power and brings with it its own unique advantages. Specifically, the squire is like a faster pawn, moving two tiles at a time in the forward direction, including diagonals. While it cannot actually take enemy units (not even enemy squires), if it is placed in any square adjacent to a knight, that knight can move 3 x 2 squares, rather than its traditional 2 x 1. This adds a valuable surprise attack component for the knight and makes it much more diverse in any battle. The squire isn't just for support, though; if it can cross the battlefield intact, it is automatically promoted to a knight upon reaching the opposite side.
The other new unit is the cannon, which fills the void between the rook and the knight. The cannon moves one tile in any direction much like the king, but with one important exception: It must move into a tile adjacent to a friendly unit (except for another friendly cannon). It attacks with an unorthodox "range strike," which eliminates the enemy unit two tiles away. Unlike all other Chess pieces, the cannon does not physically take the place of the unit it eliminates, which makes for sophisticated, new tactical situations. Both the White and Black sides have two squires and two cannons and four new pawns to fill the front rank. But that's not all. Just as the knight is indirectly improved through the new squire, so did En Passant incorporate other enhancements to keep the old units compelling. Rest assured, for example, that your bishops will have magic to account for the knights' heightened power.
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