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BEYOND CHESSThis Games Really Moves
| “Every part of the game, rule booklet, website and packaging has been personally designed by me.” — Dave Crockett, Beyond Chess |
In hopes of being included in TDmonthly Magazine’s TOY FRENZY! documentary, Dave Crockett, creator of Beyond Chess, explains what makes his game worth watching.
Beyond Chess takes the game of chess to a whole new level, making the board itself a critical part of the game play and strategy. Unlike any other version of chess, in Beyond Chess, the board moves. Each turn, players move a chess piece, then shift a board square.
This simple concept adds many new dimensions to the game never before seen and takes strategy to a whole new level. Not only do players have to worry about where the pieces are — they now must worry about where the board is, too!
FROM BATTLEFIELD TO BOARDGAME
The idea for a moving chess board came to me as a U.S. Marine. I was driving home from a field exercise one day with military strategy on the mind. I started thinking about how old-style warfare was two armies marching toward each other across an open field of battle, like you see in the movies. Modern warfare is much more mobile, across an ever-changing battlefield.
So it suddenly hit me, "What if a chess board moved?" It was such a simple idea but had huge implications. 
MOVING FORWARD
The more I thought about it, the more possibilities I saw. When I got home, I made the first Beyond Chess board from wood straps and started playing around with the concept. I played a few games with a Marine friend of mine who's an avid chess player and he loved the idea. I ended up naming a special move developed for the game after him.
I tested the game with many people and everyone absolutely loved it. I even took Beyond Chess with me to Iraq and played it with fellow Marines there.
 A PERSONAL PRODUCT
With tens of millions of chess players around the world, I saw a huge market for it. My wife and I both agreed that this was something we should do, so we invested a huge amount of money into developing the game for retail. As a graphic designer and photographer, I was able to do all the design work myself, which cut down on the production cost and made the project much more personal. Every part of the game, rule booklet, website and packaging has been personally designed by me.
We finally got it into several toy stores in Maryland and it is selling like crazy. In one store, they've sold more than 30 copies of the game in just four months. It's their biggest selling game!
Beyond Chess will be introduced to the rest of the United States at Toy Fair 2008. Having been a Marine, I'm playing up the military aspect of the game a bit and will be dressed in blue camouflage and a Beyond Chess T-shirt for the convention as a way to promote the game in a fun and meaningful way. We are expecting to have a very strong presence at Toy Fair and hope to get the game in stores throughout the entire United States very quickly.
The game is also going to be carried by Alliance Games, one of the largest toy distributors in the United States.
Beyond Chess comes with everything you need to play. The board is made of 64 high-quality, solid, plastic squares that measure 1.5"x1.5"x.25" and accommodate most chess pieces, plus two extra squares. This set includes standard Staunton-design chess pieces, a 12-page instruction booklet and a sturdy nylon backpack-style carrying bag. ToyDirectory Product ID#: 16215 (added 11/21/2007) . TD
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