A chess mod to better reflect modern warfare? Andrew Y Ames’s Last Resort is modified chess: war to protect civilians and territory. The Bleached side with pawns, rooks, knights, bishops, and a nuke, fights to free a foreign people in another land; the Oiled side with pawns, fights to be a free people in their own land. Both sides seek to protect life and freedom. The asymmetry of war is encoded in movements. The game has brass civilian pieces that either player may move. Oiled pawns and the nuke may be detonated, removing adjacent pieces. The first player to move four civilians to the row closest to their side wins. The key to winning is through the people caught in the middle. Players can play justly and protect the citizens. Or manipulate civilian loses to gain support through deception. For more information, visit the game page.

Andrew Y. Ames is an alum of the eMAD program, and is included in Learn To Play, an exhibition of games-as-art with an internationally recognized roster of artists and designers.

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