Chess on a Really Big Board an awful idea. Each player has 256 Pawns and 256 pieces. The average length of a game is likely to be more [than] 2000 moves." Betza also considered starting positions with 16 (one chess set) or 64 (four sets) pieces instead of 32 (two sets), but eventually rejected them. They are as follows: Betza also suggested "Four Board Great Chess", which would have more pieces than the rose that could not make their full moves on smaller boards, and having pawns on the third rank and about 24 pieces in the two rows behind them; and similarly, "Four Board Great
Game of the Three Friends Game of the Three Friends Game of the Three Friends (Chinese: , "Sān-yǒu-qí" ; also called Sanyou Qi or Three Friends Chess) is a three-player variant of the game xiangqi ("Chinese chess"). It was invented by Zheng Jinde (Chinese: , "Zhèng Jìndé") during the Qing Dynasty (1661–1722 AD). The game symbolizes the Three Kingdoms period war (221–264 AD) between the rival states Wei, Shu, and Wu, each vying for control of China after the fall of the Han Dynasty. The Three Friends are represented by colors blue, red, and green, respectively. Each player controls all the standard xiangqi pieces, with