When chess meets witchcraft. I am against the idea of turning chess players into witches and wizards, but here we are.
This page makes no mention of witchcraft, witches, or wizards. Whether you think of clairvoyance as witchcraft, a psychic power, or fantasy depends on your worldview. The creator of this game is a science fiction and fantasy author, and he mainly frames what players are doing in this game as guessing or predicting. Predicting your opponent's moves is in fact a common practice in Chess, though typically based on deduction rather than clairvoyance, and all this variant does is gamify that aspect of Chess.
Sadly, there are lots of similar games that use spells, magic, and predictions.
I don't know any Chess variants played by means of actual magic. My own Magic Chess employs spell casting, but it's as pretend as Monopoly money.
Why do we even call them chess variants?
Whether something is a Chess variant is not determined by the theme given to the game. Aikin could have given his game the more prosaic name of Prediction Chess, or I could have framed Magic Chess as a science fiction game called Advanced Technology Chess without changing any of its game mechanics.
This page makes no mention of witchcraft, witches, or wizards. Whether you think of clairvoyance as witchcraft, a psychic power, or fantasy depends on your worldview. The creator of this game is a science fiction and fantasy author, and he mainly frames what players are doing in this game as guessing or predicting. Predicting your opponent's moves is in fact a common practice in Chess, though typically based on deduction rather than clairvoyance, and all this variant does is gamify that aspect of Chess.
I don't know any Chess variants played by means of actual magic. My own Magic Chess employs spell casting, but it's as pretend as Monopoly money.
Whether something is a Chess variant is not determined by the theme given to the game. Aikin could have given his game the more prosaic name of Prediction Chess, or I could have framed Magic Chess as a science fiction game called Advanced Technology Chess without changing any of its game mechanics.