Chessplus
Chessplus is a commercial chess variant developed by the Australian family business Chessplus Team.Appearance
Chessplus, as a physical variant, can come in 1 of 3 packages.
- A bag, containing all the pieces.
- A box featuring a pawn and knight combining into a knawn.
- A pseudo-box with a wrap-around board and pieces.
As for the pieces, they are designed so players can merge them.Gameplay
Chessplus gameplay is similar to that of regular chess, but pieces can merge. The only piece that can't be merged with is the king. Pieces can only merge with other pieces of their own color. Only 2 pieces can be merged at a time. Pieces may split, in which they use their original move to get away from the merged piece, separating them.Castling
may be done with a combined rook. Just like in regular chess, the rook must not have previously moved. In other words, if a knight moved to combine with a rook, castling is possible, but if that rook moved to combine with the knight, then castling is no longer allowed for that rook.Similar to the castling rules, can only be used on a combination of 2 pawns. If the combination is, for example, a biawn, the combination of a bishop and a pawn, then en passant is not allowed.Inspiration
The game was inspired by an illegal move made by Aimee Simpson, one of the members of the Chessplus Team, when she was playing chess with her father, Christian Simpson. Aimee had moved her rook onto the same square as one of her pawns, confusing Christian. On Aimee's next move, she promoted her "roawn" to a queen.Reception
Chessplus received generally positive reviews.In 2025, the Chessplus team announced that Chessplus would be released on Steam as "Chessplus: Combine and Conquer".