Altus Chess-Urban Play

Altus Chess - Urban Play adds two new tournament boards: 12×8 and 18×12.

There is nothing new to learn. Same pieces, same ranges, same rules. You just have far less room to use them.

On the 12×12 there are eight empty ranks between the pawn lines. On the 12×8 there are four. On the 18×18, fourteen. On the 18×12, eight.

What that does to a game is immediate. Pieces make contact around turn two on the 12×8. On the 18×12 you are inside each other's reach before either side has finished developing. A pawn that used to need a long campaign can promote in about five turns. The openings you know stop working. There is no time left to build.

The 12×8 plays the complete 12×12 lineup. The 18×12 carries the entire 18×18 roster — the Lord, the Slip Gate, Odin's Hand and their pawn variants — each one moving exactly as it does on the larger board. That turns out to favour the long pieces enormously. Odin's Hand crosses forty percent of the ranks in a single move. The Slip Gate network reaches proportionally more of the board than it ever did. Positions close up early and stay closed.

Both boards play every mode you already know:

• Play — two players at one machine, on either board.

• Observer — sit back and watch a match unfold.

• AI Challenge — each board has its own ladder of opponents.

• Puzzles — an open sandbox. Build any position you like and play it out.

Your saves work the way they always have. Urban Play games sit alongside your existing ones, load from each board's own menu, and quitting a match drops you back where you started.

Faster, more aggressive versions of the boards you already know.