I started with the Internet Archive. If you have never used that web resource, you can go back and see what various web sites looked like at different points in time. It can be quite interesting! Anyway, since the game was released in 2006 I thought I could go back and review the web site / domain as it appeared at that time. When I entered the domain, I was informed that the site had been captured 17 times between March 8, 2008 and September 7, 2019. I went right to the early version. Here’s what I saw.
Not much happening there. The Beyond Chess links were not valid with in the archive. But when I clicked on the archive link for standard chess here’s what I read. I have copied the entire text here to preserve it.
A brief History of Chess…
Although, historians cannot agree, it is believed that chess originated in India around 600 A.D., perhaps even earlier. The game spread from Persia to neighboring countries after Arab invaders conquered Persia in the 640’s. Chess was brought to Spain by Muslim invaders in the early 700’s. By 1000, the game had likely spread through Europe. Around the 1500’s, chess began to take on it’s modern look as the moves of the game took on their present form.
Fast forward to the present – modern warfare has evolved. Armies no longer form columns and lines to march toward each other on small battlefields for combat, as traditional chess emulates.
Today’s battles are fought over vast expanses with ever-changing terrain. Strategy must now take into account, not only how the armies move, but also the effects the battlefield has on them.
So, too, chess has taken a leap forward. Beyond Chess adds a whole new level of strategy to the game, where not only must you worry about the armies, but also the board on which they fight. Players move a piece, then a square. As the game presses on, the terrain on which it’s played reshapes itself over and over. Paths to victory one moment become traps of defeat the next.
Once you’ve played Beyond Chess, you’ll wonder why it hasn’t been played this way all along.
None of the rest of the links on the archived page worked. The text above was interesting, but reads more like marketing material. It was more than I had before, so I pressed on!
Next I tried finding out more about the company name. Beyond Chess is published by Ialy Games so I searched for that phrase. The most intriguing site I found provides values for unusual attic / estate / garage sale finds and is called Worth Point.
Dave Crockett, creator of Beyond Chess, takes the games principles to a whole new level by applying them to an ever changing environment while making sure to preserve the essence of traditional chess. Crockett always loved games, inventing his first game at the age of 9. Dave Crockett’s father opened up a whole new world of game play when he taught his 12 year-old son how to play chess. From there he became an avid chess player and a proud member of the U.S. Chess Federation. As a U.S. Marine, he created the concept of a movable board to more closely reflect modern warfare and take chess to a whole new level never before seen.
Source: Ialy Games page at Worthpoint.com
That’s a lot more information than I had before! Now I have a designer name which—interestingly enough—does not appear on the box or within the game manual anywhere.