In Partnership with Musketeer Chess
The Camaratta Chess Variant Kit, which features Archbishop and Chancellors Pieces, is an exciting, new way to play Chess! Use these pieces with your favorite set of chess pieces and play Camaratta Chess! Each kit comes with a total of 4 plastic chess pieces - Black Archbishop, Black Chancellor, Ivory Archbishop, and Ivory Chancellor.
Camaratta-Chess is a modification of Sharper Chess which is the invention of GM Yasser Seirawan and Bruce Harper. Sharper Chess improves on an idea proposed by former World Champion Jose Capablanca, which introduced two new chess pieces to each army but which suffers from the need for an 8 x 10 chessboard.
Rules for Musketeer Chess can be downloaded at www.musketeerchess.com. The new chess pieces are designed to be Staunton-compatible, hence can easily be used as replacements or substitutes to customize classic Staunton pattern chess sets or create your own chess variant.
Archbishop and Chancellor Kit
Archbishop and Chancellor combine, respectively, the moves of the Bishop and Knight and Rook and Knight. They are sometimes referred to as Marshall, Empress, Princess, Cardinal, Concubine, Adjutant, Guard, Centaur, Equerry, Champion, among others.
Archbishop
Chancellor
It was former World Champion Jose Raul Capablanca, who posited these new pieces to reinvigorate the game of Chess, which he believed had been “played-out”. An interesting history must be told. These pieces were designed by Frank Camaratta. He carved them for a specific event. If this event has ever been held, it could have been the greatest Chess and Chess Variant championship of all time. All chess enthusiasts remember the Karpov-Fischer rivalry. Bobby Fischer forfeited his title to Russian Grand Master Anatoly Karpov in 1975. Almost 30 years later, there were secret negotiations conducted to arrange a match between Karpov and Fischer for the title of world champion. They would pit these two great players over the board in a Capablanca Chess Variant called Gothic Chess. The “Gothic” Chess set was presented to Fischer in Iceland through Icelandic Grand Master Friðrik Ólafsson. Fischer played through a number of games on the set in the privacy of his room and expressed his lavish approval of the chessmen. The match, unfortunately, never took place, due to Fischer’s unrealistic financial demands, but it was Frank Camaratta who created and designed the pieces and chessboard specifically for this special event. The Chessmen and Chessboard are currently in the possession of Mr. Camaratta.
In Musketeer Chess on a standard chess board, adding Chancellor or Archbishop makes the game extremely Sharp. The game becomes very tactical, where explosive combinations abound. Even with a large material advantage, the Archbishop and Chancellor sometimes cannot be contained, with brutal results. The Archbishop is capable of mating a bare king unassisted.
