Chess Evolved: the most gigantic chess variant

Chess Evolved Online, also known as Old Old Chess Battle Advanced, is a game created by the Spaghetti Monster. In my opinion, it's a "must-play" game in that it expands your idea of what chess variants even are, with over 400+ pieces and a non-p2w upgrades system.
I've been hesitant for a long while to do this kind of video, because the (solo) game developer has made a lot of genius, but also a lot of crap, and despite making a (mostly) not-p2w game, it took a long time until it was not-p2w, and the developer has pissed away a lot of the genius-credibility. (one of the most credibility reducing things the spaghetti monster has done is spending years addicted to a crypto game that had p2w upgrades)
Anyway, I figure this game is on my mind, and it's easy enough to make videos about it.
0:00 Intro, basic rules
6:30 Gameplay
12:06 Shop
19:05 Upgrades
discord: discord.gg/V64JDvbWsf

[@GigasGMX]

"we call this nuance to mock the developer" had me busting out laughing.

[@csouvey]

Chess Dynasties Enhanced

[@IcelysUnnecessary2ndChan-gv1bq]

actskyly it's Chess Deluxe Enhanced, there's a song for it

[@Michael-cg7yz]

how come this channel isn't named "Channel Icely Advanced", makes for a quaint acronym, too

[@darks_gene707]

Ah yets the CIA

[@waterinferno2071]

Losing my king certainly would lower my morale

[@NotQuartz]

The best joke for this channel would to have this be the only video ever on it. Although for now it seems like you have several videos planned on this game, looking forward to em!

[@IcelysUnnecessary2ndChan-gv1bq]

just because you said that I uploaded a new video, get owned lmao

[@nevorotem6819]

Secret Channel Evolved???

[@pideperdonus2]

Chess evolved online is sure an Advanced battle of Chess.

[@OhGoodGreef55]

waiting for someone to make a Chess Battle Advanced joke

[@IcelysUnnecessary2ndChan-gv1bq]

Chess Battle Advanced

[@OhGoodGreef55]

:boba:

[@felipecesconettomartins2097]

i think you meant to say "waiting for someone to make a Chess Battle Advanced joke Battle Advanced"

[@phantomdergwulf]

chess battle advanced

[@Colour_beaks]

Champion battle advanced

[@gabrote42]

0:01 I am so glad that this video got so much traction! I used to play 250 hours of this back in 2021 or so. An underrated part of the game is the discord. Every time I talk about arguing on the internet, I fondly recall that one time that GodOfTomatoes and I had an argument against f0x from 1 to 4 in the morning about wether telemarketers added value to society. I may have had my differences with the man (EDIT: f0x, GoT was supper kind and lovely), but he was an actual factual intellectual. And Elias once showed me I was a mere grasshopper by roleplaying as a plane-planeteer and utterly trouncing my attemps at overcoming the lack of logic. That was magical. I have issues with CCGs where I get complacent and fail to update my decks, so I lost impulse to play, but I still remember it fondly. Now that I lost access to DBD I might give it a spin. Long Live Grand (even if I play SleeperService more). On to the video!!! 0:22 Also having 40 names and developing some extremely solid modular discord bots on a level I have scarcely seen elsewhere. 0:30 classic andrew hussie meets the housing crisis is the everything crisis meets sleep deprivation 2:30 Oh god classic Kingmover spam that everyone did well except me XD 2:59 I have won a billion games where I traded kings with Angel and then ran down the biggest champion they had. So nice. Something cool is that you can be a GM while being an 800 in chess, like me. Just know your openings and play with your brain. I wish there was a real timeout wincon, instead of the constant +15 3:06 To be fair, vertical castling was also a common joke until very recently in regular chess. It was written in a puzzle that required the king to castle vertically with a newly promoted rook, but the FIDE rules already specified it was only a move to be performed on the same rank. It was written something like O-O-O-O-O-O-O# 4:02 the store and premium currency are also the most generous you'll ever see. Drop a dragon blessing, use the market, sell low tier units, you cruise 4:55 Not necessary at all. I like mot of what TheGrandestine did 6:43 be VERY careful with random megaminion discovered attacks, and don't confuse a piece for another XD 7:54 Just make sure there is not a Dove in the diagonal 8:45 Just use your brain also, because if you even trade too much you might find yourself hard-pressed to defend yourself against an uptrader like HauntedArmor, or a solomater like Dragon. Sometimes a Knight is stronger than a bishop, as Levy says 10:40 I had a custom piece back then that was a Convoy, it was basically a Prince (kingmover) that had a Warrior, a Knight and a Ninja inside it. It could move like all of them, being a way overcosted dragon with Ninja farjump, but each time it captured something with a non-kingmove, it would "deploy" (transform enemy into) the piece it captured with, so you could dissasemble it and end up with an 8 cost kingmover and 3 extra champions, if you could eat 3 minions. It was a fun idea, like all custom pieces. It even got levelled-up pieces and armor as you upgraded it, making it more efficient and risky 13:10 Speaking as an FTP myself 16:01 I have gotten hit by lighting on non immobile units when the opponent jumped into a bad trade while I was unaware. It's very good area denial, even if Wrath is a more common user. Man, I miss Lust Samurai 16:19 "Free" being three turns and one morale. Development is still a thing. Grand called hardcountring part of a more nuanced thing, so yeah. It's the grand equivalent of "filosofía muy interesante" for any argentinian viewers 19:43 I so love this upgrade system. Pawn+ is actually a very good unit to run as a 2 of in the center on a well designed army. But something like Samurai+ sucks 26:37 Much less addicting than DBD or the average RPG I play. And if anything just log in for 2 minutes. I played like 3 days a week 27:49 Pleasure watching. Subbed

[@Namchok]

This game broke my brain back way back then when I played it. Chess Evolved Online

[@godlyvex5543]

I really love this game, I hate that it has such strict progression and there's no way to just mess around with your friend using all the pieces. I hate that not a single person has made a chess variant that is as balanced or interesting. You say this is unbalanced, but at least it manages to have a customization system that somewhat balances itself with the point total thing and morale. I just want to play a sandbox version of this with my friends, I'm so annoyed that no other game is like this.

[@godlyvex5543]

I really just want someone to copy this game 1 for 1 but where everything is unlocked immediately. Please. God help us

[@IcelyPuzzles]

hmm I just want to say I don't think the game is all that unbalanced, it's in its most balanced and fun state right now, but there are definitely design issues that make people hate the game lmao. and yeah... the CBA meme actually comes from people trying to make offshoots of this game (I was even invited onto one of them and despite being playable/multiplayer/having design choices that I personally prefer way over this game, it is very slow in development AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH) but yes. this is amazing core gameplay with a cursed dev etc

[@godlyvex5543]

@@IcelyPuzzles Wait, I actually heard about that one. It's still in development? I thought it had been cancelled. Well I'm glad, that means hopefully eventually we'll have another game like this.

[@Hazelstorm_]

Channel Bonus Arrives

[@BlandTomtarOchTroll]

Played this for a while on Kongregate ages ago but quit when pieces started appearing in my dreams. Tried coming back to it a couple years later but in 10+ ranked games i only faced bots so i gave up on it. Cool to see someone talking about it!

[@gabrote42]

You get to face players at about 1200 rating I think

[@BlandTomtarOchTroll]

@@gabrote42 Thanks maybe I'll give it another shot!

[@gabrote42]

@@BlandTomtarOchTroll If you do I'll be happy to give you a few rounds or tips. My name in steam and discord is this one. I am still in the Chess Battle Advanced Discord, I just have it muted unless I am specifically mentioned

[@BlandTomtarOchTroll]

@@gabrote42 Cool! I'll absolutely send you a message on steam if I do 😀

[@theuseraccountname]

I would love a video explaining what things are in this game, such as reputation, royal power, crowns, gold stars, and contribution.

[@sophiasabkv1372]

Icely would you play Rise of the Pawn? It is truly the most advanced of battle chess

[@IcelysUnnecessary2ndChan-gv1bq]

the designer contacted me about it, super interesting (but have not yet played it at the time of writing this message lol)

[@throwawwy53]

ah yes Warhammer but for chess nerds still wish the grind wasn't as painful, i just wanna do cool things with an 8x8 grid but i gotta get them rubies to unlock pieces and fasjkgasjgkdsaj i hate grind

[@IcelysUnnecessary2ndChan-gv1bq]

in the kongregate days you could farm a currency called 'Contribution' by doing outside-of-game things to gain ingame currency, there may be a video about that entire embarrassment lmao

[@throwawwy53]

@@IcelysUnnecessary2ndChan-gv1bq sounds funny, shame i missed the train on that, but not being from the anglosphere of the internet does that sometimes P.S. : Play Void Stranger already if you haven't yrt, it's a good puzzles game

[@BryanLu0]

​@@IcelysUnnecessary2ndChan-gv1bqI mean this kind of model still exists for many mobiles games lol

[@i_like_treins3449]

Humongous chess batte advanced

[@NunyaBizniz-om6xf]

I really want someone to explain to me what Chess Battle Advanced even is. I have never been able to find a clear answer.

[@DR-7]

"Chess Online is an mmo rpg where you write your own army"

[@superboyok_]

The fact your covering the game completes the meme, its done. I hope the game gets more popular/polished

[@IcelyPuzzles]

it's nowhere near done lmao this is Old Old Chess Battle Advanced, I did not explain AT ALL where the hell CBA comes from, which is its own rabbit hole lmao

[@RayquazaPhantom]

​@@IcelyPuzzles i still dont know why you havent showed cba lol

[@IcelyPuzzles]

@@RayquazaPhantom it's because the lore about CBA is way way too much of a rabbit hole of fractal dumbness

[@RayquazaPhantom]

@@IcelyPuzzles oh ok

[@randomentirely1006]

surely you didn't make this on a second channel to avoid this being your 1000th video

[@sinanyldz8913]

You're onto something.

[@sinanyldz8913]

Turns out you weren't.

[@felipecardope]

4:05 this is literally the cba title screen

[@TheReddieRed]

I fucking love this game thx for introducing it to me.

[@vc101]

eagerly looking forward to that vid on the dev :3c

[@koveltskiis8391]

I remember playing this on Kongregate for a while, was decently fun

[@crepeobreak8219]

This channel feels very necessary, chess battle advanced

[@Rikri]

I used to play this like 6 years ago, kinda nostalgic

[@airhater]

Just got this randomly recommended. Surprised that you have second channel. Did you ever mentioned it on your main one?

[@xronium]

i have never laughed so hard watching a chess youtube video. i might be dead

[@treeplate512]

whoa new icely channel

[@Ten_Tacles]

Man, I used to play this game, and seeing it on here was a surprise And even bigger surprise is not understanding anything you said! What must this community be, I am not a part of

[@lemon4378]

this is my new favourite game thank you so much also haha chess battle advanced

[@leavingleaves3284]

Chess Battle Advanced

[@inbarin_real]

Man, I remember playing this years ago. Is it finally out of beta tho?

[@rainbowiaxiao6050]

this looks so interesting!

[@Igorious92]

It feels like a totally unbalanced variant of chess, and I like it! 🙃

[@arahmarborealis4425]

Oh hey, I wonder if I've played against your main account before. If you've played against some dude with a weird obsession with archers, that was probably me.

[@EnergyBurst2]

Given that this video got recommended to me out of the Aether with me not being a watcher of chess or having ever seen anything from you prior I'm not really sure if that last thing you said at the end was meant as a good thing or a bad thing and now I'm curious as to which it is.

[@EnergyBurst2]

P.S. Kongregate is a name I've not heard in over a decade, what a blast from the past to hear it mentioned.

[@lool8421]

yeah, almost chess 2, just need one more thing, but i don't know exactly what

[@torreywhiting5402]

4:30 Kongregate mentioned. Like administered

[@darqed]

I found the necessary second channel nvm it was published on his community tab

[@plantformest]

stress chess

[@LostInWorld-uv6oi]

Chess battle very advanced

[@GynxShinx]

Samurai and Phoenix destroy ai and low ladder, it's hilarious.

[@NotQuartz]

Quick question: does this game still get updated? You mentioned the dev is still active, but steam seemed to show that the last update was 3 years ago. Also you saying old old cba suggests that cba does actually exist, and that ceo was just the prequel

[@IcelysUnnecessary2ndChan-gv1bq]

yes the last update was in 2021, the spaghetti monster is active if you bother it on steam with questions and posts teasers in places no player is going to find

[@3thanguy7]

love that this video is you saying "i love this game despite being the dev being the absolute fucking worst"

[@Cheesemongle]

finally, a real video game

[@theominouspigeon]

I'm planning to make a chess game soon

[@gmdFrame]

An advanced chess game*

[@mujtabaalam5907]

If this is OOCBA, which games are OCBA amd CBA?

[@theneoreformationist]

Can we get more of an explanation on how the threat board works? There's different sizes of colored boxes, and it's not entirely clear what they mean. Perhaps large is a magic attack?

[@IcelysUnnecessary2ndChan-gv1bq]

it gets larger the more threat there is (3 attackers is larger than 1 attacker), plus it gets really large for higher threat like magic yeah

[@theneoreformationist]

@@IcelysUnnecessary2ndChan-gv1bq Thanks! I was starting to think that.

[@andrzejwiewiorowski]

You should play the rubik's cube chess by carykh

[@tsjbb]

i liked the part with the chess

[@federicoreina7732]

"You don't need to buy the arcane box" Buys an arcane box 🤔

[@vitowidjojo7038]

What did the developer do again? Is there a doc where i can read it?

[@evandrofilipe1526]

Is your pfp some kind of piece from chess battle advanced??

[@JessicaMorgani]

League of chess! They should sell skins actually!

[@jojobinx4020]

Well I've been enjoying this game quite a lot today. I think I'm relying too much on the wizard though...

[@justnobody5527]

I really enjoy this game, I found it by the devs idle-incremental game actually lol, Undefeated Spider is a good game 0kay..

[@user-qj4un7pv6d]

is that a channel dedicated only to chess battle advanced? also why lime

[@Abucoc]

Icly puzles has a new channel?

[@plushloler]

Hm, I should play this Chess Hell.

[@Jonskipvp]

cheese cattle advancing

[@Ribbons0121R121]

Chess workshop is crazy bruh

[@susangoaway]

This 'advanced chess' seems to be as much chess as 'advanced biology' seems to be biology.

[@uselesscommon7761]

The Based Take is a pretty interesting one. It's not totally without grains of truth, despite starting with an unhinged claim about tiktok and maybe not understanding the design and intent of a modern liberal government or the (rather low) degree of sophistication of modern algorithms

[@Swagpion]

CHESS BATTLE ADVANCED IS REAL

[@evandrofilipe1526]

I like the game and that it has more progression but I won't play it because of the treadmill mechanics

[@yonatan2009]

How can we know that you are the real icely?

[@calcrafts]

Chess Actually Balanced

[@henrymccoy2306]

Ngl the best solution to balancing with costs like this could just be done automatically. Just measure how often a piece is used vs how often it wins games and adjust the cost accordingly. Eventually, assuming a negative feedback loop forms, a decent equilibrium should occur. As long as the interval between balances is correct anything overpowered will get nerfed fairly quickly and the player base will adjust accordingly. So for example if there's a disproportionate number of wizard+ winning games then the cost jumps to 15. If queens disappear from high level play they drop down 1 cost.

[@IcelysUnnecessary2ndChan-gv1bq]

unfortunately the idea sounds good (and overall more devs should probably do it, since there are SO many devs including this one that leave pieces underpowered forever) but there's actually tons of caveats to statistics based balance, like combos, bad players, and pocket-meta participation just to only name a few (like if bad players are attracted to a unit it goes down, if a good player likes a unit personally even if it's totally balanced they will basically get punished for winning with it, highly popular units have more mirror matches that push winrate closer to 50%). also there are a few units that are value/cost specific like lifestone

[@henrymccoy2306]

@@IcelysUnnecessary2ndChan-gv1bq with a large enough player base those caveats can easily be integrated into the function smoothly. Pieces that require a fixed cost they can just be used as a benchmark. Rarely used pieces by pros that have a disproportionately high win rate simply won’t have a large enough user base to be changed by a function. Pocket metas typically form around elo ranges which can easily be a parameter considered. And frequent mirror matches will inevitably have super high use rates that will result in them being adjusted. Of course it won’t be perfect because there’s always an element of problems solving to balance changes that a program will fail to address. And pieces like minions will probably always be an issue because going from 0 cost to 1 cost is a colossal change lol.

[@Timkorea0810]

the original cba

[@Dexuz]

Calling a person "spaghetti monster" is my new favorite thing.

[@frostplays155]

wasn't this the origin of CBA that was made because CBA's dev thought that it was very pay to win

[@DanielLenrd]

why does this channel exist this video would've worked fine on main

[@IcelysUnnecessary2ndChan-gv1bq]

chess battle advanced

[@IcelysUnnecessary2ndChan-gv1bq]

also so it cannot be sniped by xenolith

[@felipecardope]

Pov: this video makes your 2nd channel grow

[@tangentfox4677]

This makes me feel like I should try making my own simultaneously less shitty and more shitty version.

[@user-th1hu6hg9s]

Ninja is just King + Spearman.

[@goldenorb1210]

creating builds advanced

[@n.-_]

Skinner Battle Advanced

[@Sefcear]

chess... battle... advanced?

[@lifinale]

Who is icely

[@vietnamgamer9490]

I wanna watch you play this unfortunately for both of us

[@yokucasper]

why is this channel a thing whats up with rhe hidden videos

[@And-So-On]

Chess Battle Evolved

[@CHAZZRMAN]

woah icely has a twin that sounds exactly like him and has a channel that pretends to be his unnecessary second channel??????

[@Donutdunot]

Icely seCond Battle Advanced

[@GTD_GameTilDead]

channel become appear on my homepage?

[@ichamsakkar4249]

CBA But Ancient

[@taafeite341]

Chess Fite Next

[@Probba]

I remember playing this back in 2018 and being terrible

[@Probba]

I liked opening the loot chests though

[@nex7662]

Evolved Battle Advanced

[@MAML_]

celery

[@MAML_]

advnace

[@elementgermanium]

chess battle advanced battle advanced

[@alphaomega8373]

Yeah this will be a none hit.

[@gmdFrame]

Trololo advanced

[@cycloidcyclone4309]

No idea why this showed up in my recommendations but sure 😂

[@sendpi6326]

I have subscribed but I hope you never upload another video.

[@Incognito-rb4tz]

cba

[@arock1640]

another skinner-i mean login-box

[@twenty_twenty_four]

whats this about the developers questionable behavior