US2040855A - Game apparatus - Google Patents

Description

A. KLEMIN GAME APPARATUS May 19, 1936.

Filed Oct. s, 1934' Z0 nullinlhnhunm Z V V Q'm INVENTOR Patented May 19, 1936 UNITED STATES GAME APPARATUS Alexander Klemin, New York, N. Y.

Application October 3,

4 Claims.

This invention relates to game apparatus, and has for its primary object the provision of means whereby such games as checkers, chess, and the like, may be so modified, in so far as the presentday rules governing such games and the orthodox methods of executing plays peculiar to such games are concerned, as to render them more interesting than heretofore from a competitive standpoint as well as more complex and intripoint.

To the above and other ends, the invention contemplates, for example,. a suitable playing field, which is divided into playing areas and background areas (such as characterize an ordinary checker board), the respective playing areas, which form with each other diagonal paths along which the game pieces may be progressively advanced, being associated with suitable supports by which a duplicate set of playing pieces may be held in elevated positions with relation to the playing-area-surfaces and with relation to corresponding playing pieces which are adapted to assume their respective positions directly on the playing areas, the playing pieces being slotted so as to permit them to accommodate the shank portions of the respective supports, as when they are positioned on the supports or as when they are positioned directly on the playing areas or as When one is superimposed on the other to efiect a paired relation, in which relation they are frictionally held together, with their respective slots in registration, by interlocking means, which includes a lug on the one hand and a socket on the other hand, which lugs and sockets are so related to each other as to automatically effect registration of the playing-piece slots when placing one playing piece on another in carrying out a so-called crowning operation.

Other objects and advantages of the invention will become apparent from the following description when taken in connection with the accompanying drawing, wherein the form of apparatus illustrated is particularly adapted for use in playing a modified game of checkers, and in which- Fig. l is a perspective view of the apparatus embodying the present invention; Fig. 2 is a fragmental sectional View taken on line 22 of Fig. 1; Fig. 3 is a plan view of a playing piece; Fig. 4 is a sectional view taken on line 4-4 of Fig. 3; Fig. 5 is a bottom view of the playing piece appearing in Fig. 3; and Fig. 6 is a view in elevacate than heretofore from a participants view- 1934, Serial No. 746,659

tion showing the playing piece of Fig. 3 as viewed from the right therein.

Referring to the drawing, the numeral 10 indicates a suitable base, carrying thereon a superimposed playing field II, which may be of cardboard or other suitable'material, and which is divided into a plurality of playing areas l2 and background areas M. It is to be noted that the playing areas and the background areas are disposed in rows, of which there are eight, when considered from either left to right or vice versa or from top to bottom or vice versa in Fig. l, the playing areas of any given row being located in that row in positions corresponding to the positions of the background areas of the adjacent roW or adjacent rows.

The structural features of the apparatus thus far described are those of an ordinary checker board and are employed to advantage in the apparatus embodying the present invention, which is characterized by the fact that it includes a plurality of playing-piece supports [5, preferably of metal, which correspond in number to and are associated with the playing areas I2. Each of these supports includes a shaft-like stem I6, which is preferably centrally positioned with respect to its associated playing area and is held in a vertical position by embedding its lower end in the base I0 or otherwise suitably connecting it thereto. To the stem I6, there is connected a supporting disc ll, which is located a substantial distance from the upper end of the stem and at a somewhat greater distance from the surface of the playing field l I.

For use with the apparatus thus far described, there are provided a plurality of playing pieces I 8, a full complement of which consists of twentyfour of one color and a like number of another. color. Although these playing pieces may, of course, be of various shapes, they are structurally identical in certain particulars, as will be readily understood when it is taken into account that the body portion 20 of each is provided at its top with a boss or lug 2|, the outer end 22 of which is curved to correspond to the peripheral curvature of its associated body portion and the inner end 24 of which is curved to conform to the end wall 25 of a recess 26 formed in the body portion 20 of the playing piece. The bosses 2| are identical in shape and size and so also are the recesses 26. Moreover, the recess 26 of each playing piece is shaped to conform to and is adapted to receive the boss 2| of each of the other playing pieces, the dimensional relation of the recesses with relation to the respective bosses being such that pieces than is' afforded in the ordinary game of V ,wall of the recess 26 of the other.

when one playing piece is superimposed on another, as shown at the left in Fig. 1, they will lie in close face-to-face contact and will be frictionally held together as a unit by reason of the nicety of fit as between the boss of one and the It is to be especially noted that the relation of each lug 2| to each recess 26 is such that alignment of the radial slots 21, with which each playing piece is provided, is of necessity effected when placing one playing piece on the other in an interlocking relation, such alignment of the slots being essential, due to the presence of the several supports IE, to permit the interlocked playing pieces to be readily removed from any given playing area and placed on another such area; andit is to be further noted that interlocking of the playi'ng pieces together may be easily effected by sliding one on to another, because of the fact that the curved inner end 24 of the lug 2|, of the lowermost playing piece, serves, in conjunction with the outer or open end of the recess 26 of the uppermost playing piece, as. a guide to facilitate proper alignment of the lug with the recess. Inasmuch as twelve playing piecesof each of the opposing groups, at the outset ofplay, are supported by the discs I1. and are destined under certain con--.

'ditions to move fromidisc to disc and since'the remaining playing pieces may assume supported positions from time to time as the game progresses, it is desirable to provide means which will effectively function to.,prevent the playing pieces from'becoming easily dislodged from their supported positions, and to that end each playing piece of each group is provided with a cupshaped pocket 28, the dimensions of which are such that it will snugly accommodate the disc I! of the respective supports, and the side wall of. which conforms to and blendswith the end wall 25 of the recess 26. p

Although the structure of the apparatus embodying the present invention is fundamentally such that it may be employed in connection with various games, eachbeing characterized by the nature of the playing pieces employed and the rules governing thegame in its entirety, it may be well to herein outline what may be regarded as the fundamental or primary rules governing a particular game, whichbears a semblance tothe ordinary game of checkers in that each uncrowned or minor playing piece may be moved diag'onally and forwardly from one playing position to another and inthat a crowned playing piece '(King) may be moved diagonally and either backward or forward from one playing position to another.' However, the apparatus provides for greater freedom of movement of the playing checkers, in that each minorplaying piece may move diagonally forward, not only in the plane of itself but also from that plane into the other plane, and in that each King may move diagonally and either backward or forward from its own plane to the other. Although a minor playing piece, when progressing forwardly, may jump either an opposing minor playing piece or an opposing King, such jump can be effected as between the attacking playing piece and the defending playing piece only when such pieces are located in the same plane, but as to an attacking King, it is to be noted that it, when moving either forward or backward, may jump a defending playing piece, regardless of whether such defending playing piece is a minor playing piece or a King and regardless of whether it'is located in the plane of the attacking King or in the other plane. Additionally it is to be noted that in the event a given playing area contains two defending playing pieces, (both of which are Kings, or both of which are minor playing pieces, or one of which is a King and the other of which is a minor playing piece) a jump may be effected by an attacking King either in its own plane or from one the gamewhich the apparatus embodying. the

present invention makes possible, which appa-. ratus may itself be changed "or modified without departing from the spirit of the. invention or the scope of the following claims.

What is claimedisr 1. In a game apparatus, playing-piece sup-port- 'ing means including a plurality of shaft-like stems each car'rying a supporting element, and a complement of playingpieces, each having a slot adapted to receive any one of said shaft-like stems and each being adapted to be removably supported on any one of said supporting elements.

2. For use with a game apparatus charac terized by playing-piece supporting means including a plurality of shaft-like stems each carrying a supporting "element, a complement of playing pieces, each having a slot adapted to receive any one or said shaft-like stems and each being adapted to be removably supported on any one of said supporting elements and each having a cup-shaped pocket adapted to accommodate any one of saidsupporting elements.

3. For use with a game apparatus characterized by playing-piece supporting means 'includinga'plurality of shaft-like stems each jcarry-- ing a. supporting "element, 'a complement of playing pieces, each havinga slot adapted to receive anyone of said shaft-like stems and each being adapted to be removably supported on anyone of said supporting elements, a nd mean's for interlocking any pair of said playing pieces together pieces, each having'a slot adapted to receive any one of said shaft-like stems and'each being adapted to be. removably supported on any one of said supportingfelements and each having a 'cupshaped pocket adapted to accommodate any one of said supporting elements, and means for interlocking any pair of said playing pieces together with their slots in registration.

' --ALEXANDER KLLEMIN.

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