New titles often appear during the world’s largest games fair Spiel in Essen. Great or special titles, but also many game authors or publishers come up with something unique for Spiel or at least bring something unique or rare to the fair. Games or promos with small or limited print runs are very coveted. Game author Ta-Te Wu, of Sunrise Tornado Game Studio, known for small games, brought with him to Spiel a small solo puzzle with a print run of just over 100 copies: Cat’s Gambit.
The title of the game refers to the chess move the Queen’s Gambit (also a popular Netflix series about chess), but with cats. Not just any cats, but cats and mermaids!? Cat’s Gambit is a one-person puzzle where players start placing cards similar to chess pieces and try not to capture their King/Queen.
Players place the Queen in the center of the table and next to it place the draw pile and a meeple. Players draw the top card from the pile and must place it each time in such a way that it matches the corresponding depicted chess move around the meeple. After the card is placed, the meeple moves to this card. In addition to a move, the “pawns” each have a unique property that allows you to influence the game. By the way, cards should always be placed in a grid of 4 x 4 cards.
If black cats are placed diagonally or horizontally on the same line as the Queen, it has been captured. If the Queen has been captured twice, the game is over and the player has lost. The game is also over if a player cannot place the drawn card or if the draw pile is empty except for 1 remaining card. Then a score follows.
Cat’s Gambit is an amusing puzzle game that uses only a limited amount of cards and plays very smoothly (max 15 minutes), making it fine for some short and lonely breaks. Moving cards similar to chess pieces is a fun thematic puzzle twist.
