Paco Sako is one of those games I was literally drooling to get my hands on. It was a case of love at first sight when I happened upon this very uniquely styled chess variant.
Unfortunately, like a pretty girl in the dark lights of a night club, by the light of a new day the early infatuation faded rather quickly.
鈥淭he name Paco Sako (pronounced 鈥楶aco Schaaco鈥�), comes from Espersanto where Paco means peace, and Sako means chess. On a conceptual level, the goal of the game is to find a way to achieve peace, through forming unions. In practice it adds a whole new dimension to this game. You can also play traditional chess using the Paco Sako set,鈥� explains the rulebook.
The game at its heart is chess. In fact the pieces are a standard chess array, so there is immediate familiarity with the game鈥檚 piece movement if you have ever played standard chess. That familiarity is a plus for taking on the challenge of Paco Sako.
I will digress here just a trifle to say the pieces themselves are quite dramatic. They have something of an 鈥榓rt deco鈥� look, and since it is a standard array you can use the pieces to just play chess. This is good to know since you will want to go that route most days.
鈥淭he game is played by two players sitting opposite each other, each with their own color, goal, and strategy. In Paco Sako, players do not 鈥榯ake鈥� each other鈥檚 pieces, but form 鈥榰nions鈥� with them, creating unique gameplay with new tactics, patterns and versatile game scenarios. In this tactical and strategic thinking game, the winner is the first player who manages to create a union with the king of the other player, putting him in 鈥楶aco Sako鈥�,鈥� denotes the ruleset.
That sounds rather promising, but never quite delivers for me.
Paco Sako is a chess variant that in the end is so far removed from chess it鈥檚 essentially an entirely new game.
Now that would seem a good thing, unfortunately the new game here is far less exciting than I had hoped for.
In Paco Sako pieces are never removed from the board. Instead of capturing a piece you create a union between your piece and one of your opponent鈥檚 pieces by moving yours into the same square as an opponent鈥檚 piece. At that point either player can move the joined piece in accordance with the movement of their piece in the union. That on the surface is a neat idea but a queen / rook union, or a union between two bishops, or knights, and a few other possibilities all set up the potential for infinite loops of movement which essentially creates stalemate. If there is one thing any chess game doesn鈥檛 need it鈥檚 another way to force stalemate.
You might house rule that a player cannot move the union last moved, but that is a clunky, inelegant patch as best.
When a union is created, the two pieces involved are also basically neutered in terms of game play. They can be moved around the board, but are unable to affect capture.聽 This is highly counter-intuitive for a chess player.
In fact, they only offer this game鈥檚 version of check, when lined up with another player which can break a union and free a piece to threaten, or capture the king.
The king too has been completely emasculated here. It cannot capture a piece because there is no capture. The king can only run, or more correctly limp away since it can only move one square at the best of time.
Now I have an online friend who likes that this game pushes boundaries pretty hard, evolving Paco Sako into a game that is more its own creation than a chess variant. I鈥檇 suggest there are many games that have a chess-heart that are unique offerings, Arimaa and Terrace coming to mind. They have a chess-like appeal but are games with unique mechanics and features.
But this one sells itself as a chess variant and must thus be judged on that criteria, and with that in mind I would opt for anything from the simplest variant Pocket Knight Chess, through Spartan Chess, Plunder Chess and a bunch more I deem better than Paco Sako.
But I do still love the pieces.
Thanks to fellow gamer Adam Daniels for his help in running through this game for review.
