Did you know that the last major update to chess rules was in 1889? The change was something that feels fundamental now: white moves first. Gambonanza, while not introducing anything new to the real chess world, completely uproots the concept of one of the oldest games in the world.
Chess for People Who Don’t Play Chess
Gambonanza is themed around chess, but it doesn’t require any prior experience or knowledge of how the game works.
The basics you need to play are taught in the onboarding experience. You’ll need tactical thinking, but you won't need to know what the Sicilian Defense is.
Game-Changing Gambits
Gambits introduce extra rules to your game. You can buy them in the shop after every round. Do you want your opponent to skip a turn? Or do you like the idea of your pawns suddenly becoming rooks? Or maybe you want three kings? Golden pieces that earn money? Tiles that trap pieces? There are more than 150 gambits to unlock. You can have five at a time, and all of them drastically alter the gameplay, strategy, and sometimes the entire board.
Turn(s)tiles
Speaking of the board, it’s much smaller than a regular chess board, and actually the only thing that the two have in common is that they’re chequered when you start the game. The tiles will evolve, giving you money and protecting or blessing your pieces (meaning that, if they get captured, they reappear in your stock). At least, that’s what the nice ones do.
There are also naughty tiles that usually appear on harder levels and during boss fights. They trap you, make your pieces vanish, or simply crumble if you put your pieces on them.
Do You Have a Reservation?
What makes Gambonanza unique (as if all of the above wasn’t enough) is the reserve system. You start your game with a set amount of pieces, but as you progress and start getting into gambits, you’ll accumulate extra pieces that are sitting off board but can be deployed into play at any point. Put them on a golden tile just before you win, for example, and it’s essentially free money.
In Gambonanza, the fun lies in experiments. Try out different gambit combinations, have an army of infinite knights, change tiles, never let your opponent take a single turn—at least, that’s the idea. You won’t always get lucky as the shop is random, but when everything clicks, it feels like you really are a Grandmaster.