by Todd Weaver & Brian Jelke of Kenzer & Co. -- Issue #49: The Six Million Hit-Point Man, November 2000, p. 46

CHEBACHE

Pardee Games -- Email: PardeeGames@lightlink

     What is Chebache? CHEckers, BAckgammon, CHEss. It is defined as: "The new strategic board game combining elements of checkers, backgammon and chess and bridging the gaps between them." Wow, my first, thoughts were, "That's a bold statement." However, lets take a closer look at this game.

     Like the classics, Chebache is designed for two players. My first impression was that Chebache was most like backgammon. The board has 18 movement points on it for each player, and to win the game a player must move his or her 12 pieces to the finish space. Movement is controlled by rolling two dice in backgammon form. However, after playing a few games, I realized that Chebache is much more than a simple spin-off of backgammon like I first thought.

     At the end of your movement phase you are allowed to make use of a checkers-style jump move. I honestly overlooked this very strong move. When combined with stacking your pieces, it is possible to move up to four pieces a great distance along your path to victory with this jump move.

     Perhaps the best part of Chebache is the chess elements of the game. Each player has a King piece. The King is a double-size piece that counts as two pieces when trying to capture your opponent's pieces. Also the King can move forward or backward along your path. Other pieces can also do this from any of the tivot turn / pivot spaces on the board [Editor's note: an angle-mark space is actually called a "tivit," to emphasize the symmetric nature of the mark as well as the movement options from it.] Also much like chess you must be careful with your King because it can be taken control of by your opponent and then used against you. The last major chess element[s] are the Chebache zones. Just like check and check-mate, you can try to win the game by getting your opponent's king trapped in Chebache.

     If you enjoy chess or backgammon, then you should get plenty of game play out of Chebache, and it would be well worth adding to your game collection.

Brian's rating: Highly Recommended (and then some)

Originally published in Knights of the Dinner Table (KODT), Issue #49, November 2000, p. 46. Review text reproduced in full with permission from Todd Weaver and KODT, with grateful thanks from Pardee Games.