Beyond Chess Manual

I picked up a copy of Beyond Chess via eBay several years ago. At the time I was teaching the Chess Merit Badge to a group of Boy Scouts and found the idea of a modular board very intriguing. It was something I thought would give the more advanced chess players something to do while the less experienced players learned the basics.

The copy that I bought remains the only copy I have ever seen. The forum at Board Game Geek is largely inactive. Only 30 people have reported that they own the game. Compare this with Pandemic, one of the top games on the site, which has over 111,000 owners…

Chess is an amazing game with a rich history. The rules have been stable for hundreds of years. So why do people keep trying to change it? Because we can, I guess. 🙂 At some point in the future I will write a bit more about Beyond Chess and some of the other interesting variations (four-player chess! bughouse!) I have used with (or been taught by) Scouts. This post is primarily to post a copy of the manual as I have been asked to provide it.

Beyond Chess Manual

The manual is of course copy-written. There are listings for sale at a couple of online game sellers but both are listed as “out of print” or “not available.” But since the original website is defunct and the original publisher doesn’t even exist that I can tell I am posting a copy here. I don’t claim any copyright rights. I am simply posting so that the broader gaming community might be able to see and enjoy the concept presented by this interesting variation on an ancient game.