The sport of kings has evolved, and the evolution has taken quite an unexpected turn – a “Democratic Chess” (no less). A very interesting concept proposed by Michael Marcovici the Democratic Chess imbibes the modern virtues of LAN and hidden cameras in the ancient sport. Inspired by Lewis Carroll´s “Through the looking glass”, Marcovici’s concept has IP-WLan-network cameras installed in each of the sixteen pieces on-board. These pieces are then capable of looking around and interacting with all the other pieces, including the two real players who control the game. These pieces are given the power to decide on a move on their own’ democratically, of course. The players, however, have the ultimate authority to make the actual move. Michael says that he’s in the process of building a working prototype, which, by his count, ought to be ready in a couple of weeks. If this comes out, as the designer promises, then it might be interesting to see if the pawn agrees to sacrifice himself for the king, cause in a democracy there are no kings.
