King Down: Adventure in the World of Chess

Tabletop game designer Saar Shai, whose double-edged card game of covert agents and secret missions, The Agents, won our praise in a review in May, has returned to Kickstarter with King Down, which is…wait, is that just a fancy chess set?

No, it isn’t. While it borrows some familiar gameplay elements from the timeless strategic game, playing King Down will feel a bit like taking a tumble down the rabbit hole for chess aficionados. It starts with the names–why are the queen, rook, bishop and pawn calling themselves Thorn, Rock, Cross and Pike? Why do they look like characters from Alice in Wonderland? And who are these archers, paladins and guards, who move and function like nothing you’ve seen in chess before?

The Alice in Wonderland clues are a good place to start when describing King Down. Anybody who’s read Lewis Carroll’s follow-up novel, Through the Looking-Glass, knows that Looking-Glass Land is laid out like an enormous chess board that behaves shockingly like the real thing (for instance, the White Knight can’t ride two paces forward on his horse without falling off to one side or another). Yet at the same time, it’s a backdrop for all kinds of adventures you’d never imagine could occur in boring old chess.

King Down is exactly the same. While it uses some of the rules and pieces of chess, it is not chess–rather, it is a fantastic adventure set in the world of chess. You will play spells, summon powerful beasts, and jostle for control over the valuable capitol. You might bring pieces back from the dead or attain the power of flight. And even if you capture your opponent’s king, the game is not necessarily over.

Did I mention that King Down supports up to four players on the same board? It’s time to banish any illusions you might have remaining. King Down isn’t just a more beautiful take on chess; it’s a faster-paced, harder-hitting, more enchanting adventure entirely. Yes, it’s got plenty of the strategic depth that people love in chess, but it’s also got the thrill and variety that other players find lacking in the classic game.

Saar Shai sent me a preview copy of King Down, and even though, as in any Kickstarter project, the final rules and components are subject to change, I can confidently assert that, unless it undergoes a complete overhaul, the final product will be massively fun. Chess has earned its place as a classic, but King Down has the potential to become a new classic, expanding on a universe we thought we knew.

For more adventures in the world of chess, support King Down on Kickstarter.