Laser Chess

You open it and expect a game where you shoot lasers. Instead a chessboard appears on the screen with toothed mirrors, prisms and pieces in different colors. Laser Chess, from 1994, is a logic puzzle where the point is not to kill the enemy but to direct a laser beam through a set of optical elements so that it finally hits the opponent's king.

You play alone or against the computer on a board of eight by eight squares. Your pieces — mirrors, prisms and absorbers — are not pieces with mobility. They are static obstacles that you shift and rotate in individual turns. The laser fires from one side of the board and the goal is to lead it through a series of optical obstacles all the way to the opponent's side, where the target is. The moment the beam hits the opponent's king, you win.

The mechanics are simple in theory but very tough in practice. Mirrors reflect the beam at ninety degrees. Prisms split or combine it depending on their orientation. The order of moves influences the physics in a confusing way. You don't move pieces out of strategy — you balance optics. It is more of a puzzle than chess, even though at first glance it resembles something between the two. The graphics are minimalist, a black board with colors for the individual elements. There are no sounds and there is no text. The game is purely logical.

In the nineties this sort of thing was made essentially with a focus on education and entertainment at once. Laser Chess is precise, cold and at times frustrating — not because it is unfair, but because intuition fails and a mistake of one move means a restart. It doesn't matter how old you are, every time you have to work out the basics anew.

Today it will be played mainly by those who enjoy brain-bending puzzles without time pressure. There is no running clock and no lives. There is no story. There is only logic and the chance to beat it through trial and error. When I couldn't sleep at night, this is how such things got played — not to rush anywhere, but to think.