Almost chess is a chess variant invented by Ralph Betza in 1977. It is played on a standard chessboard with a standard set of chess pieces, except that each player's queen is replaced by a chancellor, a piece that combines the movement of a rook with the movement of a knight. Despite the queen and chancellor having roughly comparable overall power, swapping one for the other noticeably changes how the game plays out: bishops tend to become stronger relative to other pieces, while knights become comparatively weaker than in orthodox chess. Because the rest of the rules stay the same as standard chess, the variant is considered an easy entry point for chess players who want to try a chess variant without learning an unfamiliar rule set.
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1. Almost chess (Wikipedia)
Lead section, first sentence
Almost chess is a chess variant invented by Ralph Betza in 1977
Lead section, rules summary
each player's queen is replaced by a chancellor
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